• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Employment Law

Different employee races alone aren’t enough to support a race discrimination lawsuit

03/29/2012
Should you worry every time you retain one employee and dismiss another who belongs to a different protected class? Probably not—as long as there’s no other reason to believe that the terminated employee’s protected status was the reason he was fired.

Full-time leave for medical treatment? Make sure it’s what employee wants

03/29/2012
Faced with a sick employee, you may recommend short-term disability leave to receive medical treatment. But that could violate the ADA if the employee neither needs nor wants all that time off.

Age comments plus termination equal trouble

03/29/2012
Here’s an important reminder for all supervisors: Innocent age-related comments can come back to haunt you. That’s especially true if the comments come from someone who has a direct say in hiring and firing decisions.

Can employees dodge discipline by hiding behind FMLA?

03/29/2012
Beware employees who fear they’re about to be disciplined or fired! They’re among the most likely to launch a pre-emptive lawsuit. Conventional wisdom says you should call that bluff. But what if the claim involves the FMLA?

Hacked! How to limit liability for employee data breaches

03/29/2012

Imagine this nightmare scenario: You’ve contracted with a vendor to enter personnel data into a new computer system, including employees’ Social Security numbers, addresses, names of dependents, health records and bank account routing numbers. Then the vendor notifies you that employee data was somehow stolen or lost. What do you do?

Establish clear discipline policies–and follow them for every employee, every time

03/29/2012
You’ll rarely lose a termination-related lawsuit if your handbook contains clear rules that you follow consistently. That’s because when everyone who breaks the same rule is equitably disciplined, fired employees will have a hard time finding ­workers outside their protected class who were treated more favorably than they were.

Foreign-born worker sues? Know difference between national origin and immigration status

03/29/2012
While it is illegal to discriminate against an individual based on his or her national origin, that doesn’t mean that discrimination against someone based on her immigration status is forbidden. That’s because immigration status isn’t tied to a particular national origin.

Exclude FMLA leave from attendance discipline

03/29/2012

Here’s a basic way to avoid FMLA trouble: Before punishing an employee for poor attendance, double-check whether any of the time she’s missed was for FMLA leave. That way, there’s no question about whether FMLA leave was a factor in discipline.

Harassment after off-site party: Must we investigate?

03/29/2012
Q. We have an annual off-site company party, with alcohol. We pay for half the hotel room cost if people want to stay over. An alleged harassment event occurred in a hotel room around 2 a.m. What is our potential liability? And do we have to investigate the complaint … ?

Employee making threats? Know how to legally handle explosive situation

03/28/2012

Some employees are simply difficult to manage. They start arguments and may see harassment or discrimination at every turn. Sometimes they cross a line, implying they could get violent. How you handle their complaints can spell the difference between winning and losing a lawsuit.