02/03/2012
Many employers don’t realize that they can still be sued for FMLA retaliation by a terrible employee that they fired for perfectly legitimate business reasons if there’s a possibility he was punished for requesting or taking FMLA leave.
|
01/31/2012
The former chief of the La Marque Fire Department is suing for race discrimination and retaliation after a series of run-ins with the city manager over alleged harassment within the department.
|
01/23/2012
The U.S. Department of Labor recently issued three new fact sheets that help clarify what types of employer actions rise to the level of illegal retaliation under the FMLA and FLSA.
|
01/20/2012
A group of seven San Francisco janitors will split $180,000 to settle an EEOC lawsuit that alleged ABM Industries discriminated against Hispanic employees and retaliated against those who filed discrimination complaints with the EEOC.
|
01/12/2012
Under Minnesota’s Whistleblower Act, employees who report alleged employer wrongdoing to their employer or the government are protected from retaliation. Those employees don’t have to be right about their allegations—they just have to act in good faith. If their allegations have an “objective basis in fact,” they are protected by the law.
|
01/12/2012
Some employees might welcome a transfer from a physically challenging job to a more sedentary one. But for someone who liked the old job and doesn’t feel qualified for the new one, the move could feel like retaliation.
|
01/06/2012
Warn bosses: Threatening someone with discipline may be retaliation.
|
01/06/2012
Some employees are simply difficult to manage. They start arguments and may see harassment or discrimination everywhere. But sometimes they cross a line, implying they could get violent. How you handle their complaints can spell the difference between winning and losing a lawsuit.
|
01/05/2012
What’s weirder: Actor James Franco earning a D in a drama class, or a NYU professor alleging he got the ax for giving Franco the lousy grade? José Angel Santana, who taught Franco in a 2010 directing class, says the university was so eager to please its star student that it retaliated when Santana issued the low grade.
|
01/05/2012
As we enter 2012, it’s a good time to review employment policies and practices in light of the government’s aggressive efforts to enforce employment laws. The National Labor Relations Board, the EEOC, the DOL and its Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs are all cracking down on employers.
|
01/05/2012
A former manager at a Pittsburgh-area Panera Bread shop is suing the chain, claiming he was fired in retaliation for refusing to implement his boss’s racist directive.
|
01/02/2012
When employees lose their jobs, they often look for a reason to sue. One common tactic is to argue that a layoff was used as an excuse to get rid of “unproductive” employees, especially those who take advantage of their right to FMLA leave. That’s why HR must develop a performance-appraisal system that documents that having taken FMLA leave wasn’t a factor when you evaluated employees’ work.
|
12/30/2011
Employers will ring in some new laws in 2012 that will bring new opportunities and challenges, including the VOW to Hire Heroes Act and the Dodd-Frank amendments to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
|
12/23/2011
We're already a month into 2012. It’s time to review your employment policies and practices in light of the government’s aggressive efforts to enforce employment laws. The EEOC, the DOL and a host of other agencies are all cracking down on employers. Good, up-to-date policies are your best defense against the fed's stepped up scrutiny.
|
12/21/2011
Sometimes, a single poorly chosen phrase can generate large legal bills, as the following case shows.
|