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Layoffs

Satellite offices may not count for WARN layoff notice

11/01/2007

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers to provide 60 days’ notice before a plant closing or a mass layoff involving 50 or more employees at a “single site of employment.” Employees have tried to argue that satellite offices should be included to determine if WARN notification was due …

IT administrator who planted ‘Logic bomb’ pleads guilty

11/01/2007

Yung-Hsun “Andy” Lin, a former systems administrator at Medco Health Solutions, pleaded guilty to planting a “logic bomb” on the company’s computer network because he suspected he was about to be laid off. The malicious software, a string of coding that would have wreaked havoc on the company’s systems, was set to detonate on Lin’s birthday …

Court: If employees hold the job, they’re ‘Qualified’

11/01/2007

Employers are finding it harder to get age discrimination cases dismissed early. They also are learning that beating age discrimination suits requires rock-solid evidence of fair and equal treatment—and a genuine, legitimate reason for discharging the employee that has nothing to do with age …

Prevent ‘Survivor syndrome’: Avoid turnover after layoffs

10/16/2007

Issue: After a round of layoffs, remaining employees will wonder "Who’s next?"
Risk: That insecurity can cause layoff survivors to "fire themselves" and seek greener pastures elsewhere.
Action: Don’t …

Supreme Court to hear important employment law case

10/02/2007

In a term that will be dominated by cases concerning Guantanamo detainees and the power of the Executive branch, the U.S. Supreme Court will also hear an important case involving employment discrimination.

American Home Mortgage employees blindsided by shutdown

10/01/2007

American Home Mortgage (AHM) was reportedly still hiring employees by the dozens when it crashed in the first week of August. More than 6,000 employees, including 1,300 in the company’s Melville headquarters, were let go with a single day’s notice …

Downsizing and FMLA leave

10/01/2007

Q. Our company is in the process of going through a reduction in force. One of the positions that has been selected for elimination belongs to an employee on FMLA leave. Can we still eliminate the position? …

Hispanic manager cannot object to diversity report

10/01/2007

Eduardo Padilla, an information technology manager for the North Broward Hospital District, filed a discrimination and retaliation lawsuit alleging he was laid off because he was Hispanic …

University of California settles UC Berkeley coach’s sex-Bias case

10/01/2007

On July 19, the University of California agreed to pay a former UC Berkeley women’s swim coach $3.5 million to settle her gender-discrimination claim. Karen Moe Humphreys, an Olympic gold medalist who was a 26-year employee of the university’s Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, argued that she was laid off while less qualified males were hired and retained without regard for the university’s seniority system …

Getting along without employee on FMLA leave? Go ahead and terminate

10/01/2007

When an employee goes on FMLA leave, someone has to do the work. What if that someone easily assumes the employee’s duties and does a great job? Can you use that fortuitous realization as the basis for firing the leave-taker when he returns? Perhaps, but there’s a risk. The employee may sue, alleging the real reason he was let go was retaliation for taking leave, and not that you figured out the company could get along just fine without him …