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Employment Law

AW North Carolina offers early-outs to entire staff

04/27/2009

Auto parts maker AW North Carolina has offered buyouts to all 1,100 employees at its Durham Treyburn Corporate Park location. The company is hoping 500 employees will accept the offers, leaving the supplier with a leaner workforce more in line with industry standards.

Don’t be afraid to terminate if manager can’t manage personal relationships

04/27/2009

Some people have more trouble than others managing personal relationships. When such a person has a supervisory role, the result can be disastrous. Don’t fear discharging a lousy manager based on what you observe or find out following an investigation.

Carefully track all discipline details to show you treat all employees fairly

04/27/2009

Employees who are disciplined sometimes think they’ve been treated unfairly. Some inevitably look for some nefarious reason—like sex, age or race discrimination—to explain the injustice they suffered. And when their lawsuits reach court, you’ll have to turn over your disciplinary records…

Offer alternatives to reporting discrimination straight up the ‘chain of command’

04/27/2009

If an employee suspects his manager of bias, you can’t expect him to go to that particular boss to make a complaint. And you can’t expect to escape a lawsuit if you discipline the employee for going around the boss to report his concerns.

EEOC loses first round of lactation harassment case

04/27/2009

In a case the EEOC probably will appeal to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal trial court has ruled that comments about a lactating mother’s breasts over a two-month period weren’t pervasive enough to create a sexually hostile environment.

Bias plaintiffs must suffer discrimination themselves

04/27/2009

Here’s an important thing to remember if your organization is hit with a series of discrimination cases: Even if some are legitimate, that doesn’t mean every member of a protected class can sue.

Bill would shift responsibility for workplace safety rules

04/27/2009

State Sen. Doug Berger is not happy with the way the state labor commissioner is enforcing workplace safety laws. He has proposed a bill that would strip workplace safety enforcement duties from Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry and move them to a yet-to-be-created agency called the Employment Safety and Security Division …

State government employees seek right to join unions

04/27/2009

North Carolina is one of two states in the nation that bars public employees from unionizing. (Virginia is the other.) That may be changing. Legislators met with concerned state employees earlier this spring to discuss changing the 50-year-old law.

Staples gets nailed for breaking overtime law

04/27/2009

A federal jury in Newark has awarded $2.5 million in damages to 343 sales managers employed by office superstore Staples. The court determined the retailer misclassified the managers as exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act when they were not.

Merely speaking about need for diversity isn’t protected

04/27/2009

Fired employees with vengeance on their minds often go looking for a reason to sue. They often latch on to the charge that they complained about discrimination and then were punished. As the following case shows, it takes more than a casual mention of diversity to constitute a protected action.