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Terminations

Don’t want to budge on accommodations request? Plan on defending yourself in court

09/16/2011
Here’s an important reminder to pass along to managers and supervisors: Simply dismissing a disabled employee’s request for accommodations is folly unless it is crystal clear that no accommodation is possible.

3M to pay $3M to settle age bias suit

09/16/2011
Minnesota-based 3M has agreed to pay $3 million to 290 former em­­ployees to settle an EEOC lawsuit that claimed layoffs in 2003 and 2006 disproportionately targeted workers age 45 and older.

No free disability pass for insubordination

09/16/2011
Employers have the right to ex­­­pect everyone to behave ap­­pro­­pri­­ately at work. That includes employees with mental disabilities who may have trouble with communication and perception. What that means: You are free to punish inappropriate behavior regard­less of its cause.

How to recoup training costs when new employee quits

09/13/2011

It’s expensive to train employees, especially if the job is highly specialized. Smart employers protect their investments by having new employees sign an agreement to repay training costs if they leave soon after receiving the valuable benefit. Here’s how to recoup those costs.

Bad hair day: Fired for refusing to color the gray?

09/08/2011
An employee at Capital Title of Texas refused her boss’s request to dye her gray hair and was fired. As you can guess, she sued for age discrimination and is awaiting her day in court … probably in front of a gray-haired judge.

Was accent on no accents at tony Princeton Club?

09/07/2011
New York City’s Princeton Club faces a lawsuit alleging it terminated a long-time employee because of her accent. The employee claims the club fired her after nearly 30 years of service because a new general manager found Hispanic accents “embarrassing.”

At Jones Beach, fashion foul or was it age discrimination?

09/07/2011
When Long Island’s Jones Beach re­­quired its lifeguards to wear Speedo swimsuits for an annual swimming test in 2007, it chafed 61-year-old Roy Lester in more ways than one. He re­­fused to don the skimpy trunks for his test. The beach patrol fired Lester for in­­subordination.

Strictly speaking, there’s no ‘freedom of speech’ in the private workplace

09/02/2011
It’s a free country, right? Em­­ployees can express themselves however they want at work. Wrong. The right to free speech on the job only applies to public employees, and even then there are significant limitations.

Carefully account for all FMLA leave absences

09/02/2011

Smart employers make sure that no employee is ever punished for taking FMLA leave. They do that by carefully cataloging when every employee takes FMLA leave. And if they must discipline an employee for attendance problems, they spell out the reason why each absence counted toward punishment.

OK to lay off worker who’s out on FMLA leave if it’s a business necessity

09/02/2011

Some employees assume that they will always get their jobs back after taking FMLA leave. Usually that’s true, but not always. Take, for example, a case in which an employer needs to lay off workers. An employee’s FMLA status doesn’t necessarily protect her job in such a situation.