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Employment Law

The best reason to retain personnel documents: Employees–and courts–have long memories

04/14/2011
Employees are often only too happy to go back years to come up with circumstantial evidence that their employers are biased, citing incidents that on their own could not be the basis for a lawsuit.

How not to handle FMLA leave: Do what Chicago did to a seriously ill employee

04/14/2011
Here’s a chance to learn from an employer’s FMLA mistakes. Don’t make the same ones yourself.

The labor law waiting to trip you up–even if you’re not unionized!

04/12/2011

Even if your employees don’t belong to a union, the National Labor Relations Act applies to you. For example, the National Labor Relations Board recently announced that a nonunionized employer will pay $900,000 to two fired employees to settle charges that it violated the NLRA. Here’s a compliance primer.

How to ensure your employee handbook supports FMLA compliance

04/12/2011
Employers are free to develop their own policies, but many laws have an absolute mandate—you must ensure employees receive proper notice of your policies. That’s why the FMLA section of your handbook is so important. Here’s your roadmap to full compliance with the FMLA’s notification requirements.

It’s a man’s world? Be ready to ‘man up’ in court

04/11/2011
Reductions in force (RIFs) are fertile ground for employee lawsuits to sprout up. But as this ruling last month shows, even when a company conducts a perfectly good RIF procedure, it can be torpedoed in court by a manager’s untimely comments …

He said/she said: Gauging credibility in harassment cases

04/08/2011
Most employers understand the importance of doing a fair and thorough in-house investigation when they receive complaints of on-the-job harassment. But many investigators falsely believe they can’t conclude that harassment occurred unless they have independent witnesses to the allegations. So what should you do when confronted with conflicting stories?

More firms increase D&O liability coverage limits

04/07/2011
A new Towers Watson study says that 21% of employers increased their liability limits for their directors & officers liability coverage last year, compared with only 12% who did so in 2008.

2011’s biggest wage-and-hour issues–and what to do about them

04/06/2011

This year is shaping up to be a tough one for organizations worried about employment law issues. So far, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided three big employment law cases—and every time, ruled in favor of employees. The latest expanded employer retaliation liability under the FLSA. But that’s not this year’s only press­ing wage-and-hour problem. Pay atten­tion to these other issues:

Amityville Fire Department settles age bias lawsuit

04/06/2011
A group of volunteer firefighters for the Amityville Fire Department will share $209,280 after they settled a lawsuit alleging discrimination in the way cash bonuses were handed out.

Don’t ignore lawsuit! It won’t go away

04/06/2011

Pass along this reminder to supervisors: Any legal documents they receive must be forwarded right away to HR and your attorney. Other­wise, you could miss important deadlines. Worse, you could automatically lose the case, even if it has little merit.