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Firing

Balance Staffing blindsided by recruiter’s ADA lawsuit

07/13/2010

Balance Staffing’s short-sighted treatment of a visually impaired recruiter will cost it $100,000 to settle a disability discrimination suit. Balance Staffing, a nationwide temp agency with operations in Florida, hired Jocelyn Snower. Snower was an experienced recruiter, but company owner Robert Feinstein did not know she was blind when he hired her. When he found out, he immediately fired her …

Include federal jury service protection in your employee handbook and policies

07/08/2010
Make sure your employee handbook covers federal jury service and that supervisors don’t punish employees who serve on federal juries. Employees who are called to serve on juries in federal courts are protected from discharge because of their service.

Courts more reluctant to extend employee deadlines for filing lawsuits

07/08/2010

You should be able to rest easy after an employee misses a deadline to file a lawsuit. In the past, courts have been lenient when it comes to those deadlines, especially if the employee doesn’t have an attorney. But now the tide seems to be turning. Courts are beginning to get stricter about deadlines.

After poor-performing worker complains about e-mail, should we follow through on plans to fire?

07/08/2010
Q. Admittedly, this is an odd-ball question. My HR department just received a complaint from an employee about risqué e-mails that some of her co-workers were trading back and forth. Coincidentally, the employee who complained is also slotted for termination because of poor performance and attendance problems. Is there any risk in terminating this employee in light of her recent complaint?

Try to accommodate employee’s religion– but don’t automatically agree if it’s a burden

07/08/2010

Some employees think that any restriction on their exercise of religious expression or dress is automatically illegal. That’s not true. In fact, when faced with an employer’s request to remove an article of clothing such as a head scarf or other head covering, the employee must state that doing so would interfere with practicing her religion and that she would like an accommodation.

Rebellion after dispute resolution? Discipline

07/08/2010

Some employees refuse to accept their employer’s solution to their discrimination complaints. They demand more action. Sometimes those employees begin working against their supervisors, perhaps assuming that any disciplinary action would constitute retaliation. Do you have to cave to their demands?

Are there other steps we should have taken before following discipline with termination?

07/02/2010
Q. We fired one of our truck drivers after giving him a written warning about continued lateness in completing weekly logs. Should we have taken any other action prior to his termination?

When good workers go bad: ‘Employee of year’ award doesn’t give immunity from firing

07/02/2010

Sometimes, for whatever reason, a seemingly great employee makes an awful decision that forces you to terminate her. The key: Be consistent. Letting bad behavior slide because the worker is a stellar performer can trigger a discrimination claim. The best way to show bias played no part in the decision: Document the employee’s unacceptable behavior.

Fired right after two weeks’ notice: Must we pay?

07/02/2010
Q. A resigning employee gave us two weeks’ notice, but we decided to terminate the employee right away instead. Are we obligated to pay the person for those two weeks he gave notice for?

Document rationale for all discipline to show it wasn’t a pretext for bias

06/29/2010

If you carefully document disciplinary actions and punish all employees fairly, courts will usually uphold your decisions. That’s because an employee who challenges the reason for her discharge has to show that the reason wasn’t legitimate—that, rather, the rationale was merely a pretext for some form of discrimination. And it takes more than just coincidence to do that.