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

Hiring

OK to use candidate observations to justify hiring decisions

07/02/2008
It’s legitimate to base hiring decisions on observations of how prospective employees will perform. Just be sure supervisors document any observations they make. If the person in question later sues you for some reason, you’ll be able to use those observations as legitimate justifications for your decision …

Former worker never should have been hired? You’re not off the hook for discrimination

07/01/2008
Let’s say you learn that a former employee misled you during the hiring process, failing to reveal something so serious that—had you known—would have prevented you from making a job offer in the first place. Now your former employee is suing you for discrimination. Does the new information that came your way kill the lawsuit? …

Masonry firm misclassified workers as independent contractors

07/01/2008
Nelson Torres Garcia, owner of Stone Masonry Unlimited in Fuquay-Varina, has agreed to pay $10,000 in fines for misclassifying five people working on a construction project in Braintree, Mass., as independent contractors …

Beware applicants who are really union organizers

07/01/2008
If your company isn’t a union employer, that doesn’t mean you can ignore the National Labor Relations Act. Chances are, someone wants to make your company a union workplace and will try to trick you into becoming one. In fact, one of your job applicants may be that wolf in sheep’s clothing. He or she will lie to get a job—and then call in the union organizers …

Obama weighs in on Amendment 46

07/01/2008
What does the country’s first black presumptive presidential nominee think of Colorado’s proposed constitutional Amendment 46, which would ban affirmative action in state government and education? An Obama campaign spokeswoman said he “opposes these ballot initiatives, which would roll back opportunity for millions of Americans …"

Doh!

07/01/2008
A woman wanted for stealing money from her employer in North Dakota gave authorities a helping hand when she used her former boss as a reference for a job in Pennsylvania …

How to protect yourself from Internet-Related liability

07/01/2008
The Internet is an invaluable tool in many workplaces, but lately it’s become a somewhat unexpected cause of employment law litigation. Two issues lead the wired way to the courthouse for employers: gathering information about job candidates through web sites and potential liability for what their employees do while using the Internet …

Employer didn’t check records before letting him check a pulse

07/01/2008
A man worked as a paramedic on the Front Range for 17 months before American Medical Response (AMR) discovered he was not a certified paramedic. AMR discovered the forgery when Teel requested a transfer from the Denver area to the Longmont Fire Department …

You may not even see EEOC complaint until lawsuit hits

07/01/2008
In a new twist on an already complicated HR world, an employer now may find itself served with a federal discrimination lawsuit without any inkling that a case was even brewing. Ordinarily, the employer gets a copy of the employee’s EEOC complaint before anything else happens. But what happens if the EEOC doesn’t let you know about the complaint and the employee goes to court? …

Applicants gone wild: Top 10 blunders by interviewees

07/01/2008

Job applicants bringing Mom along to an interview or interrupting the interviewer to take a cell phone call … These are two of the top 10 faux pas committed by job seekers, as reported by our HR Weekly Forum readers …