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Terminations

Remind managers: Base hiring only on job-related reasons

05/01/2005
Issue: Can you place conditions on employment that aren’t related to the person’s ability to perform the job?
Risk: Courts may see such restrictions as illegal “employment blackmail.”
Action: …

Cut your legal risks by reworking exit interviews

05/01/2005
Issue: Gaining more value from your exit interviews.
Risk: Intelligence gathered often falls into a “black hole,” so mistakes are repeated and legal land mines are overlooked.
Action: Ask …

Don’t retaliate against employees for controversial public opinions

05/01/2005
If your organization does business with any government entity (from a state agency to a local school board), be wary of allowing government officials to become involved in your employee discipline …

Don’t ‘get tough’ on certain staff; tie punishment to crime

05/01/2005
Issue: Supervisors tend to be quicker in disciplining employees that have given them trouble in the past.
Risk: Singling out certain “troublemakers” for discipline can spur a retaliation lawsuit.
…

State law dictates employees’ access to personnel file

05/01/2005

Q. An ex-employee whom we fired is now asking to take some documents from his personnel file. Is he legally allowed to do this? Do we have to give him the information just because he’s asking for it? —L.B., North Carolina

Don’t automatically fire after FMLA, STD leave expire

04/01/2005

Q. Our policy is to run FMLA and short-term disability (STD) concurrently. FMLA is for 12 weeks of job-protected leave. STD is for 26 weeks, with proper medical documentation. At what point can we terminate an employee, at the end of 12 weeks, when FMLA leave is exhausted? And, if so, do we end short-term disability payments, since the employee has been terminated? —E.A., Georgia

Will your anti-retaliation policy pay off?

04/01/2005
When it comes to handling employee complaints of unfair treatment, you’d better have a policy and a procedure in place to handle retaliation claims.
That’s the $520,000 message a federal …

Accommodate employee health issues, but don’t ‘play doctor’

04/01/2005
When employees suffer health problems that affect their work and could trigger ADA protection, you should start the interactive process and explore possible accommodations. But make sure your supervisors know not …

Avoid lawsuits by sticking to performance when you fire

04/01/2005
When terminating someone, it’s critical to choose your words very cautiously. Briefly summarize your reasons for the firing, and allow the person to offer his or her side of the story, …

Employees can’t cry ‘retaliation’ if they’re not eligible for leave

04/01/2005
Issue: Employees can sue for FMLA retaliation only if they’ve put in the minimum hours to become eligible for FMLA leave.
Benefit: Less risk of first-year employees winning FMLA-retaliation suits. …