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Discipline / Investigations

Shoot down the legal threat from camera phones

02/05/2008

Cell phones with camera capabilities can expose your organization to legal problems: privacy claims, trade-secret vulnerabilities, employee theft and more. Used inappropriately, camera phones can violate employee and customer privacy. Your best action: Write, and consistently follow, a camera-phone policy and distribute it periodically.

When harassment suit looms, prompt action saves the day

02/01/2008

Open a New York newspaper and chances are you’ll see a headline featuring an employer in deep trouble for allegedly allowing an atmosphere of sexual or racial harassment to flourish. When you receive such a complaint, act immediately. Don’t wait. Often, that’s exactly what the employee’s attorney is hoping. Instead, investigate and reach a conclusion …

Recruiter files sexual harassment suit against K-Sea Transportation

02/01/2008

A former recruiter for K-Sea Transportation of Staten Island is suing the company for $16 million, claiming it failed to address her sexual harassment complaints …

Why do employers have to investigate harassment?

02/01/2008
Q. I know I’m supposed to investigate harassment complaints. I just don’t know what law requires it. Exactly why does an employer need to conduct an investigation of a harassment complaint?

What to do? Employee who complained about harassment wants us to drop the investigation

02/01/2008
Q. What if the harassment victim wants the matter dropped? Do we still have to conduct an investigation?

Concerns during a harassment investigation

02/01/2008

Q. If we start an investigation about sexual harassment, is there anything we need to worry about while conducting the investigation? …

Considering an employee hotline, but worried about anonymous complaints

02/01/2008

Q. We don’t have a hotline for employees to call to complain about harassment, discrimination or retaliation. We have been considering one, but we are concerned about anonymous complaints. Should we set up one anyway? …

Tell supervisors: Absolutely no ethnic comments allowed

02/01/2008

What seems like a joke to members of the majority can be deeply hurtful to members of a minority. These days, that’s a particular issue in areas with a large concentration of people of Middle Eastern heritage—such as Michigan. As the “war on terror” shows no signs of abating, it makes sense to remind managers and supervisors to stay away from any comments on ethnicity …

Public employees may have right to run web site critical of employer

02/01/2008

The Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) has taken the position that, like the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), it can order an employee to be reinstated if a public employer punished him for speaking publicly about workplace issues …

Can we impose a disciplinary day off against an exempt employee?

02/01/2008

Q. One of our department managers consistently violates our safety policies. We have written him up before, but that does not seem to get through to him. Our safety consultant has suggested that we give the manager a day off without pay to “send a message.” I am concerned that we may have a problem under wage-and-hour laws—that an employer cannot deduct wages from an “exempt” employee. This manager works long hours, and we do not want to face a claim that we made him a nonexempt employee because of a one-day disciplinary suspension. Your thoughts? …