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Retaliation

Changed work schedule isn’t workers’ comp retaliation

04/09/2009

A minor schedule change to accommodate medical restrictions isn’t retaliation.

Beware last-ditch efforts to claim FMLA leave

04/07/2009

Sometimes, an employee whose job is in jeopardy will try to protect it by initiating a lawsuit intended to intimidate her employer. She may call in sick instead of showing up for a termination meeting, hoping to create an FMLA retaliation or interference claim. Here’s how to handle such tactics.

It’s possible for worker to have more than one ’employer’

04/07/2009

Don’t think that because your organization doesn’t have direct control over some workers, you’re not their “employer” under federal law. Simply put, you’re probably the employer if you assign projects, control the means by which assignments are completed, specify the skills required, control how the work is done and hire and decide how much to pay the worker.

Public employees must choose: Sue agency or boss, not both

04/07/2009

Here’s a bit of good news for managers and supervisors who work for Ohio public employers. Employees who decide to sue a government agency through the state Court of Claims lose the right to sue their supervisors directly and personally.

‘Dinosaur’ talk can revive extinct lawsuit

04/07/2009

Sometimes, one or two stupid comments are all it takes to fuel a lawsuit. Take, for example, talk that could be construed as ageist. It isn’t unusual to hear managers and supervisors throw around the word “dinosaur” or use the term “fresh blood” to describe changes to the workforce. Is it code for age discrimination?

Beware desperate ‘whistle-blower’: Document reason for firing to stop retaliation claim

04/07/2009

Employees are often quite sophisticated about their legal rights—especially when they suspect their jobs may be on the chopping block. When they think of the lawsuit possibilities, they may even try to set up their employers. One easy way
to get a case going is to blow the whistle on alleged wrongdoing.

Texas anti-bias agency pays $900,000—for retaliation

04/07/2009

A jury recently awarded $900,000 to a former employee of the Texas Commission on Human Rights, which is responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws, for firing her in retaliation for complaining about discrimination against the agency’s own employees.

Spell out FMLA intermittent leave timing in handbook—or risk a million-dollar mistake

03/30/2009

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a verdict of more than $1 million in an FMLA intermittent leave case involving a foreign adoption. The sad fact is that the employer could have avoided the entire problem by studying up on intermittent leave and adoption.

OK to transfer without fear of retaliation suit—if new job is substantially similar

03/30/2009

Ever since 2006, when the U.S. Supreme Court’s Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad Co. v. White decision made it easier to prove retaliation, employees are trying to push the envelope on what constitutes retaliation. Slowly, employers are getting answers.

Set up correspondence log tracking all incoming mail, faxes and e-mails

03/26/2009

It’s common sense: You can retaliate only if you know about whatever it is you are supposedly retaliating against. If you can show you never knew an employee was engaged in an alleged protected activity, it becomes impossible for an employee
to win a retaliation claim.