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Firing

Privacy: Don’t open employees’ personal mail

10/01/2003
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To claim religious bias, worker must first voice need for accommodation

09/01/2003
A person’s religion is not like his sex or race, something obvious from a glance. That’s why Title VII imposes a duty on workers to provide fair warning of any employment …

Secondhand smoke leads to multimillion-dollar penalty

09/01/2003
If your workplace still allows smoking, consider this: A New York jury awarded $5.27 million to a sales director of a modeling firm who claimed that secondhand smoke subjected her …

Workers can’t claim self-defense as reason to ignore anti-violence rule

09/01/2003
As part of your anti-violence policy, include a clearly worded ban on physical and verbal abuse in the workplace, even if it’s in self-defense. Include descriptions …

FMLA doesn’t apply to workers who try to deceive you

09/01/2003
If you discover that one of your employees has either misused or lied about his leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), you’re well within your rights to fire …

Never assume pregnancy will affect employees’ ability to work

09/01/2003
Issue: It’s up to pregnant employees to decide if pregnancy or maternity will prevent them from performing their jobs.
Risk: Liability for up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in …

You can require mandatory overtime

09/01/2003

Q. A new employee has just informed his supervisor that he can’t work any overtime. Can we legally fire this person? —G.M., Virginia

‘Free speech’ no protection to workers

08/01/2003
The next time an employee argues that he has a First Amendment right to say whatever he wants at work, wear a T-shirt with a controversial message or display …

Allow applicants to answer negative background-check results

08/01/2003
It’s true that your company could be held liable if it rejects an applicant based on inaccurate data in his background check. But don’t stop doing background …

If workers’ ‘free speech’ threatens others, you can ban it

08/01/2003
Issue: Employees wrongly believe the First Amendment protects their comments at work.
Risk: You don’t need to put up with employees who claim their harassment or bias is just “free …