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Terminations

Pittsburgh scientist says government axed him for speaking his mind

08/27/2008
Abdel Moniem Ali El-Ganayni, a nuclear physicist, has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), claiming it revoked his security clearance and fired him because of his ethnicity, his Muslim faith and his criticism of the war in Iraq …

Ex-Worker charged in killings was upset about a reprimand

08/27/2008
Robert Diamond, the fired worker charged with killing two employees at Simon & Schuster’s distribution center in Bristol on Aug. 1, said he had been harassed by co-workers and was upset about being reprimanded in March for calling a black co-worker “boy.” …

Sorry, no take-Backs on FMLA

08/26/2008
In July 2001, Steven Peters joined Gilead Sciences, a California-based pharmaceutical company, as a therapeutic specialist. In December 2002, Peters took leave under the FMLA for surgery. He took a second leave in March 2003. On April 25, the company sent a letter to Peters, saying that because he held a “key” position the company could not keep open, he had been replaced …

Has accusatory pizza man made his final delivery?

08/26/2008
Two men went to a Papa John’s in Westfield to pick up a pizza. After they left the store, delivery driver Kelly Tharp told co-workers that one of the men had pulled out a gun. Tharp repeated his story to local police, describing the men’s car and offering a license plate number. The men sued Papa John’s for defamation, negligent hiring and related claims …

Is it legal to discipline an employee for tardiness by suspending her without pay?

08/26/2008
Q. I work in HR at a customer call-in center. To make sure we have enough coverage to handle calls, we have a strict tardiness policy. Recently, one of our customer service agents was late for work several days in a row. She is an otherwise outstanding performer and we don’t want to fire her. In the alternative, we would like to suspend her for one week without pay. Is that legal? …

Discharging employee after FMLA leave expires may be retaliation

08/25/2008
Eligible employees are entitled to up to 12 weeks of FMLA leave per year and are guaranteed their jobs back (or equivalent ones) if they return at the end of that leave. That means you can terminate at the end of 12 weeks, right? Maybe not …

Editor tries to stop presses on alleged retaliation

08/25/2008
Silvina Barboza served as editor of Latinos Unidos, a Spanish language newspaper owned by Greater Media Newspapers (GMN) in Freehold. Early in 2005, Barboza was diagnosed with obesity and scheduled for gastric bypass surgery in December. When management learned of her plans, GMN terminated her …

Employees win right to sue for employer post-Employment conduct

08/25/2008
Employers that think their liability ends when a terminated employee walks out the door better think again. A recent New Jersey case expanded employees’ rights to sue employers for post-termination nonemployment-related conduct. In the wake of the decision, courts may construe common employer acts as retaliation …

Child porn from lawmaker’s PC leads to quick resignation

08/25/2008
Just a week after child pornography was found on his office computer, State Assemblyman Neil Cohen turned in a one-sentence resignation letter. A General Assembly staffer allegedly found a photo of a naked girl in Cohen’s Union Township office …

Violating any work rule can be just cause for termination

08/22/2008
Under N.C. General Statute § 126-35, North Carolina state government employees can be discharged only for “just cause,” a term the statute doesn’t clearly define. The vague language can make it difficult to terminate a state employee. But that’s not the case if a state agency has a clear set of rules, can show the employee knew about those rules and broke them anyway …