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Employment Law

Compass sent retirement funds the wrong way

03/29/2012
Two recent settlements make what should be an obvious point: You can’t misappropriate employees’ retirement money and expect to get away with it. Cases in West Chester and Bethlehem show that the feds will come looking for you, and make you pay it back.

Courts give benefit of doubt to pro se plaintiffs

03/29/2012
Some employees act as their own lawyers, something that can put employers at a disadvantage. That’s because courts bend over backward to make sure an unrepresented litigant gets his day in court.

Contract worker EPA claims have long shelf lives

03/29/2012

You probably think that once a contract employee’s contract expires, that’s the end of the matter. You don’t renew the contract and she moves on. That may not be the case. She can still sue over Equal Pay Act claims for at least two years after her last check.

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.