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Terminations

Former crew leader sues Teknor Color for disability bias

09/08/2009

A former Teknor Color Co. employee is suing the Jacksonville company for violating the ADA and the Civil Rights Act when it terminated her from her crew leader position.

Beware firing ill employee after FMLA expires

09/02/2009

Employers sometimes have the mistaken belief that employees with serious health conditions who have used up all their FMLA leave can be terminated if they can’t return to work. That’s simply wrong. In fact, those employees may be entitled to reasonable accommodations—including additional time off—under the New York State Human Rights Law and the New York City Human Rights Law.

The 5 steps of progressive discipline

09/02/2009

A progressive discipline system is the best way to correct employee performance problems. It’s also the best way to protect against wrongful termination lawsuits. It allows you to ensure that any employee fired because of inferior performance was treated fairly and in accordance with your company’s policies. Here’s a five-step model for progressive discipline:

What should we do? We may need to terminate one of our founding partners

08/28/2009

Q. My company, a North Carolina corporation, has only four employees, all of whom are equal shareholders. We don’t have employment contracts. May three of us decide to terminate the employment of the other, a 25% shareholder?

FMLA leave-taker slipping? Fire away, with justification

08/28/2009

Of course, employees have the right to take protected FMLA leave. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take action you already planned to take for other legitimate reasons before you found out the employee needed FMLA leave.

Should we require a nondisclosure agreement?

08/26/2009

Q. Should we require new employees to sign a nondisclosure agreement in order to protect our trade secrets, customer lists, etc.?

Document reason for termination to make sure courts don’t second-guess your decision

08/26/2009

If you have to fire an employee, don’t worry that a court is just waiting to second-guess why you did so. The fact is, courts are reluctant to question your reasons as long as you can convince them the reasons were honest, even if in retrospect they may seem baseless or even foolish. They don’t want to become a national HR department.

Cross-dressing hair stylist blames firing on gay bias

08/26/2009

Daniel Brant liked to curl his eyelashes and wear mascara and heels when he went to his hair-stylist job at the Chop Shop on the Philadelphia campus of Temple University. When his boss transferred him to the salon’s South Street location and later fired him, he sued for discrimination.

During RIF, make sure your rationale makes sense

08/26/2009

Reductions in force are risky, so plan them carefully. Before you try to explain why you’re letting certain employees go, make sure your reasons make sense.

Confront bigotry—it won’t go away by itself

08/25/2009

It may be tempting to ignore rumors about racial or other hostility in the workplace. But you do so at the company’s peril—especially if some of that hostility is coming from a supervisor who has the power to hire and fire.