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Hiring

Could we have refused to hire waitress who now refuses to sing ‘Happy Birthday’?

01/13/2010

Q. One of the waitresses working in our restaurant claims her religion forbids her from singing “Happy Birthday” to customers. If, during her interview, we had identified this requirement as an essential job function, and if she said she couldn’t sing the song for religious reasons, would we have been within our rights to refuse to hire her?

Heed legal risks of recruiting via Facebook, LinkedIn

01/12/2010

Employers seeking Internet-savvy candidates have been flocking to social media sites in the past year. But employers (and their lawyers) are discovering a hidden problem in that recruiting-by-Facebook strategy: Depending too much on the sites could leave your organization vulnerable to age and race discrimination lawsuits.

Ohio employers may get $6K per new hire under stimulus plan

01/11/2010

Using money from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funding law, a statewide initiative called Project HIRE (Hometown Investment in Regional Economies) could pay Ohio employers $6,000 to train each qualified new worker they hire.

Can I legally refuse to hire job candidates who don’t share my political beliefs?

01/11/2010

Q. I run a small business and only want to employ people who are like-minded and share my core political values. Is it legal to refuse to hire a job candidate because of his or her political beliefs?

When hiring, don’t overvalue interview skills

01/11/2010

Does your organization’s hiring process rely heavily on how applicants handle themselves during job interviews? If so, be aware that courts are often suspicious of such inherently subjective decision-making. If an applicant who belongs to a protected class can demonstrate qualifications that were at least as good or better than those of the chosen candidate from a different class, a court may conclude that interview performance was a smokescreen for discrimination.

Employment testing and discrimination in the post-Ricci era

01/11/2010

Like every other aspect of the employer-employee relationship, a variety of federal and state laws govern how employers can administer job-related tests. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ricci v. DeStefano that employers violate Title VII if they do not validate job testing results solely because they fear a lawsuit.

Wasted at work? You don’t have to tolerate it!

01/11/2010

Some employers foolishly worry that they may violate the ADA or the FMLA if they enforce a zero-tolerance policy that forbids employees to work under the influence of alcohol. The simple reality is that employers have every right to expect workers to show up sober in the morning. Furthermore, being an alcoholic is no excuse.

Set job application rules, apply them equally

01/07/2010

Employers are free to create reasonable rules for submitting job applications and make potential employees follow those rules. As long as your rules aren’t enforced in a way that favors one group of applicants over others, courts will let you reject an applicant for failing to follow those rules.

Take a proactive approach to prevent workplace violence

01/07/2010

Recent workplace shootings in Orlando, Fla., and Fort Hood serve as powerful reminders that employers must heed signs that an employee could act out and harm co-workers or supervisors. There were 768 violence-related deaths in the workplace in 2008. Despite those disturbing numbers, many employers stick their heads in the sand. They put their assets and employees at risk by gambling that “it couldn’t happen here.”

Keep your workplace drug-free without creating liability

01/07/2010

When drug abuse isn’t an obvious problem in the workplace, it’s easy for employers to develop a cavalier attitude about it. That’s not smart. It’s in your best interest to detect employee drug abuse early and root it out immediately. But that’s easier said than done. Keeping your workplace drug-free means knowing how to spot the problem and effectively respond to it—without violating employees’ legal rights and creating legal liability.