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Discrimination / Harassment

Heed the Legal Risks of Employee Weight-Loss Programs

05/01/2006

Forcing your well-meaning health-improvement plan could backfire. Discrimination and privacy issues could derail your goal. Immunize your program against potential legal ills using these five tips …

4 employment law lessons from the courts

05/01/2006
Supervisors can learn a lot from others’ mistakes, particularly when it comes to employment law issues. Here are four recent court decisions that provide lessons on how supervisors can keep their organizations (and themselves) out of legal hot water.

Do you need a music policy for the ‘iPod generation’?

05/01/2006

The advent of MP3 players, satellite radio and Internet-based music makes it easy to rock and roll at work. Such distractions can reduce employee productivity and even create create legal risks. Establish a music/noise policy before it becomes a problem …

EEOC action spurs longer recordkeeping

04/01/2006

If you think that you can forget about a discrimination dispute just because the employee doesn’t file an EEOC complaint within the allotted time, you may be in for a surprise. As a new court ruling shows, the EEOC can sue your organization years, or even decades, after the alleged discrimination took place …

Clarify reasons for differences in employees’ pay

04/01/2006

When it comes to compensation systems, KISS is the rule. If you keep your pay system simple, you’re less likely to have to explain yourself in court, as the following case shows …

Beware Discrimination Risks of Promoting ‘Acting’ Supervisors

04/01/2006

Although it may be tempting to let unproven employees "try out" a promotion to see if they’ll work out, be careful of the hidden legal risks. If you treat the acting supervisor differently than other promoted employees, you could end up on the wrong end of a discrimination suit …

Train Supervisors to Avoid Double-Meaning Words

04/01/2006

A federal jury has awarded a Tyson Foods supervisor $1 million, illustrating again that preventing racial discrimination is much cheaper than trying to litigate your way out of a preventable lawsuit. Take this opportunity to remind managers that what they say does matter.

Be Aware of Little-Known Contract-Bias Law … and Its Limits

04/01/2006

If your organization signs contracts for goods or services, it’s important to educate yourself on a little-known federal law that can easily trip you up: the "Section 1981" law …

Small Employers: Introduce the ’15-Employee Threshold’ Defense Early

04/01/2006

The federal job anti-discrimination law (Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act) applies to employers with 15 or more employees. So, if you have fewer than 15 workers, you may think you’re automatically immune from such suits. Not so fast, says a new Supreme Court ruling …

More reason to beef up training: ‘Quit and sue’ becoming the norm

04/01/2006

Don’t assume that you can handle sexual harassment issues after they arrive on your desk as a complaint. The trend these days seems to be "quit and sue," rather than giving employers a chance to fix the problem. And, in many cases, employees are finding success in such tactics …