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Firing

Discharging employee after FMLA leave expires may be retaliation

08/25/2008
Eligible employees are entitled to up to 12 weeks of FMLA leave per year and are guaranteed their jobs back (or equivalent ones) if they return at the end of that leave. That means you can terminate at the end of 12 weeks, right? Maybe not …

Editor tries to stop presses on alleged retaliation

08/25/2008
Silvina Barboza served as editor of Latinos Unidos, a Spanish language newspaper owned by Greater Media Newspapers (GMN) in Freehold. Early in 2005, Barboza was diagnosed with obesity and scheduled for gastric bypass surgery in December. When management learned of her plans, GMN terminated her …

Employees win right to sue for employer post-Employment conduct

08/25/2008
Employers that think their liability ends when a terminated employee walks out the door better think again. A recent New Jersey case expanded employees’ rights to sue employers for post-termination nonemployment-related conduct. In the wake of the decision, courts may construe common employer acts as retaliation …

Violating any work rule can be just cause for termination

08/22/2008
Under N.C. General Statute § 126-35, North Carolina state government employees can be discharged only for “just cause,” a term the statute doesn’t clearly define. The vague language can make it difficult to terminate a state employee. But that’s not the case if a state agency has a clear set of rules, can show the employee knew about those rules and broke them anyway …

Longtime hospital worker sues to keep her job

08/22/2008
You’ve got to give points for stamina, no matter the outcome, to 83-year-old Annie Allen, a part-time worker for more than 35 years at John Umstead Hospital in Butner. She’s fighting for her job after being fired earlier this year …

Former N.C. health plan official says firing was unjust

08/22/2008
George Stokes, former chief executive of North Carolina’s state employee health insurance plan, claims he was unlawfully fired and that lawmakers spread inaccurate information while ousting him …

The 6 kinds of terminations … and how to avoid lawsuits for each one

08/21/2008
Terminations are the spark to many employment lawsuits. And for each of the six kinds, there are some common steps employers can take to make sure they defend themselves if the termination is challenged in court …

Stubble trouble: Can you fire unshaven employees?

08/21/2008
Do any of your employees look like they’ve just crawled out of a suitcase? A court recently addressed this question: If an employee is fired for ignoring his boss’s demands to get a shave, does that count as “misconduct” that disqualifies him from unemployment benefits? …

Termination by phone: legal but unwise

08/21/2008
Q. We have an employee who has been working from home. We’ve decided we really need someone in the office. Can we terminate her by phone? Or do we have to call her into the office? — V.N., Florida …

Firing OK if FMLA return date isn’t honored

08/19/2008
When an employee goes out on FMLA leave, set a return date and stick to it. If she doesn’t show up back to work and doesn’t ask for an extension or a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, you are free to terminate her, effective at the end of the leave …