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HR Management

Delegating Wage-Setting Discretion to Branches Won’t Justify a Class-Action Lawsuit

02/01/2007

Recently, clever lawyers toyed with a new tactic, hoping to turn individual discrimination cases into nationwide class-action monsters. They’d find a single unhappy employee and sue on behalf of all similarly situated employees in a company’s subsidiaries …

Sex harassment investigator sued for giving bum advice

02/01/2007

New Jersey attorneys may be feeling their clients’ pain on a whole new level.  A recent district court ruling allowed an employee to sue the attorney who investigated her sexual harassment complaint (as well as her employer) …

Part-time, ‘as-needed’ employees can still sue for bias

02/01/2007

Employees can sue for discrimination if you illegally figure their race, sex, age, religion, disability or pregnancy status into their termination. That’s true even if an employee is a part-timer who works only a few hours on an as-needed basis …

Irony: Motherhood Maternity settles pregnancy-bias suit

02/01/2007

The EEOC has signaled that it will aggressively pursue employers that discriminate against pregnant applicants or employees. One ironic example: Motherhood Maternity has agreed to pay $375,000 to settle a pregnancy discrimination and retaliation lawsuit …

It’s up to employees to press harassment complaints

02/01/2007

While it’s vital to react promptly when employees formally file sexual harassment complaints, what do you do if they approach you informally and don’t want to make a formal complaint? …

Crude, foul-mouthed manager can easily spark a lawsuit

02/01/2007

HR professionals beware: Foul-mouthed managers are trouble, and the best policy is zero tolerance …

Super Steel settles bias suit

02/01/2007

Glenville locomotive manufacturer Super Steel Inc. settled a lawsuit by black workers who alleged racial discrimination by employees and supervisors. The lawsuit sought $175 million but the settlement amount was not specified …

Lessons from Wal-Mart’s employment-law missteps

02/01/2007

Wal-Mart bashing may be the new spectator sport in America, but the nation’s largest retailer is slowly learning some important lessons from a series of legal setbacks involving time and attendance records and managers’ misguided efforts at cost control …

Train managers on FMLA or risk paying double damages

02/01/2007

It’s more important than ever to teach supervisors how to listen for leave requests that could fall under the umbrella of a “serious” condition qualifying for FMLA relief. Otherwise, don’t expect to plead ignorance if they make a mistake …

10 ways to cut your organization’s legal bills

02/01/2007
Perhaps the last thing you want to think about is hiring an attorney. But someday you will probably have to work with attorneys on contracts or even — perish the thought — lawsuits aimed at your organization. The good news is you can take some steps to contain the cost of using outside lawyers. Here are the 10 best ways to trim your legal expenses.