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Policies / Handbooks

Promises, promises: Put incentives in writing; don’t let managers blurt them out

02/01/2007

Remind supervisors to avoid the temptation of making oral promises that they may not be able to keep, even if that means losing an employee who has another job offer …

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

‘My lawyer will be in contact’: Enough notice to preserve records

02/01/2007

A New Jersey appellate court recently granted a new trial to a former Paine Webber employee who claimed the company fired her for filing a sexual harassment complaint. During trial, the employee claimed Paine Webber withheld or destroyed critical documents

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

When (and how) can Pa. employees peek in their personnel files?

02/01/2007

The Pennsylvania Inspection of Employment Records Law guarantees employees the right to view their personnel files at work …

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 …