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EMPLOYMENT LAW

Does your referral program cause illegal 'inbreeding'?

08/28/2008
 

You view your employee referral program as a hands-down success, but take a closer look at those referred candidates. Do they have the same skills, backgrounds, racial and ethnic traits as the people who referred them? Has that led to a homogeneous-looking workforce? That’s a big red flag. It indicates that your referral program may actually be creating what recruiting consultants call “employee inbreeding.”

Take proactive steps to ensure harassment doesn't escalate

08/27/2008
 
Be sure to take it seriously when employees come forward with sexual harassment complaints. Ignoring their complaints could embolden the harassers. To prevent such an unnecessary escalation, make sure you visit the work site and talk to everyone. Check for telltale signs of harassment, such as offensive posters or jokes on bulletin boards ...

Differing male and female grooming standards may signal opening for religious accommodation

08/27/2008
 
Some religions prohibit men from cutting their hair. That can conflict with company grooming standards that set different limits on how long male and female employees may wear their hair. Generally, courts allow such differences ... Even so, a man whose religion says he cannot cut his hair may have a religious discrimination case.

Act fast to stop co-Worker harassment

08/27/2008
 
The key to winning co-worker harassment cases is to show that you took swift, just and effective action as soon as you learned about the harassment. The following case proves that’s a winning strategy ...

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 ...

Prosecutor sues over lost promotion

08/27/2008
 
State Deputy Attorney General Thomas Kimmett has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett and other state officials, claiming he was denied a promotion because he reported what he considered an illegal practice by the AG office and the state Department of Revenue ...

Managers' e-Mails give life to pregnancy case

08/27/2008
 
Beverly Health and Rehabilitation Services in Richland will have to defend itself before a trial court against a pregnancy discrimination suit filed by ex-employee Barbara Stager. In court, Stager produced e-mail exchanges between company managers that referred to Stager as “high maintenance” and called her a “princess.” “Let’s see if we can nip this,” a director wrote under the subject line “FMLA.” ...

Cell phones, laptops and BlackBerrys: Understand the liability risks

08/27/2008
 
Despite rising energy costs and flat wage growth, U.S. employees’ productivity is higher than ever. Chalk up much of that productivity growth to how well employees use modern information technology. But before you hand out cell phones, laptops and BlackBerrys to everyone on staff, understand that such tech tools may expose your organization to legal liability ...

How should we pay for weekend travel time?

08/27/2008
  
Q. How do we pay hourly employees who are traveling on a day that’s not considered a workday, like Saturday or Sunday? What if they normally have a 10-minute commute to the office but instead they have to go to the airport, and the airport is an hour from their homes? ...

Ensuring the confidentiality of HR info

08/27/2008
  
Q. I’m the HR director of a 45-employee company and have one assistant. Due to the firm’s growth, I’m considering giving my assistant more responsibility. My concern: The assistant is very friendly with about 10 other employees, two of which are her roommates. What’s to stop her from divulging information to her friends? I have said nothing to her about my concerns yet. What can I express to her without overstepping her legal rights? ...

Handling a boorish union rep

08/27/2008
  
Q. One of our employees serves as a committee member for a labor union that represents some of our employees. He uses his union position to protect himself from our company’s policy on insubordination. Does management have a right to ban this employee from the property when he conducts labor business because of his combative, disrespectful and intimidating manner? What rights does management have under this circumstance? ...

Must we translate our handbook?

08/27/2008
  
Q. If an employee speaks Spanish and doesn’t understand English, am I required to have my handbooks and other policies translated into Spanish? Is the handbook valid if the employee signs but does not understand the content?  ...

When janitor was caught reading, IUPUI leaped, then looked

08/26/2008
 
Last fall, two black employees of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) objected when they spotted janitor Keith Sampson reading Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan in a campus break room. The cover of the book features white-robed Klansmen and burning crosses ...

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 ...
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