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Firing

‘No comment’ is best response when reporters call about a firing

05/09/2008
Discharging an employee is stressful to everyone concerned. It can be doubly stressful if the employee held a publicly visible position. Local reporters are likely to call asking for information about why the organization fired the employee. Handling those calls poorly can spell legal trouble …

Noose in the news

05/09/2008
The manager and two employees of a Bay City Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon were fired after allegedly hanging a noose in view of a black cook. The employees reportedly let the noose hang for four days before taking it down …

Woman awarded $500,000 for sexual harassment, alleged rape

05/07/2008
A woman who was sexually harassed and allegedly raped by a boss at a Quiznos restaurant in Norwich was awarded $500,000 by the state Division of Human Rights …

HR decision doesn’t have to be perfect—Just honest

05/06/2008
Sometimes, even the best HR professionals may feel paralyzed when faced with a major employee discipline decision, such as whether an employee should be fired. They hedge and keep asking supervisors questions, or keep an investigation open to get more information. If this sounds like your HR office when dealing with a discrimination complaint, relax …

Log ADA requests and start interactive accommodations process right away

05/06/2008
The ADA requires an employer that has reason to believe an employee wants an accommodation to begin an interactive accommodations process. Ignoring an accommodation request is dangerous. Instead, set up a process that logs all requests and puts the matter on the fast track to resolution …

Absent without leave: Can we fire for violating vacation policy?

05/06/2008
Q. We recently could not reach an employee who works off-site. Then we learned he was responding to customer messages by saying he was on vacation. After we learned this, he contacted his supervisor and said he had been on vacation and would be on vacation the rest of the week. His supervisor reports that he had not requested vacation time beforehand—and our policy states that vacation time must be preapproved. This employee had been a marginal performer, and now his supervisor wants to fire him. Can we fire him for this? …

Congress OKs New Genetic Bias Law—What’s it Mean for HR?

05/06/2008
Congress just passed the nation’s first federal law prohibiting employers and insurance companies from discriminating against individuals on the basis of genetic information, a protection critics have called “a remedy in search of a problem.” Find out what the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act prohibits, and why some believe it could cause trouble for employers.

Track discipline to show equal treatment for all workers

05/05/2008
Insist that managers tell HR when they issue any form of discipline, even an oral warning. That way, there’s a record that you can later use to explain why it only looks like a discharged employee was punished more harshly than others who committed the same offense …

Discharging ill employee for performance? Better make sure you can prove it

05/05/2008
Courts often suspect the worst when employers fire severely ill employees. A judge may bend over backward trying to find a way to help the employee. An employer that can’t offer concrete, solid and compelling reasons for the termination may very well find itself trying to defend a “regarded as disabled” lawsuit …

Are there unusual protected statuses that can limit an employer’s right to terminate?

05/05/2008
Q. We know that it is unlawful to discriminate against employees on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, age and disability. Do any other protected classifications exist under Texas law that might limit an employer’s right to terminate a worker employed at will? …