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Employment Law

Beware: Employees don’t have to meet EEOC deadline in race discrimination cases

06/17/2008
Georgia employers have long believed they were off the hook when employees failed to file EEOC discrimination complaints within 180 days of the alleged discrimination. But employees who charge race discrimination under a previously little-known post-Civil War discrimination law aren’t bound by the 180-day limit …

Don’t let tardiness influence FMLA leave

06/17/2008
Ann Weichman, an account underwriter at Chubb, was a pain to supervise because she was so frequently late for work. Then, a few days after Weichman took FMLA leave, she was late for nonmedical reasons. The company had had enough and fired her. She sued for retaliation and interference with her FMLA rights …

Time off for church TV?

06/17/2008
Grocery store cashier Kimberly Bloom asked for Sundays off work for religious reasons. Although the store had a voluntary shift-swap system so employees could trade days with co-workers, Bloom told her boss that religious convictions prohibited her from working Sundays—or from asking co-workers to work for her …

Want some million-Dollar fries with that shake?

06/17/2008
Anthony Tesvich, a former employee at Vinings-based Home Depot Inc., has been charged with tax evasion and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against the home improvement retailer. Tesvich allegedly took millions of dollars in kickbacks from foreign vendors …

Employees behaving badly: How about a $2,000 margarita?

06/17/2008
Donna Gamble, of Marietta, a former Georgia Tech employee assigned to the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, pleaded guilty to charging $316,000 of personal items on her Georgia Tech credit card …

Centerville dodges negligence charges in case of rogue cop

06/17/2008
On Dec. 27, 2004, Centerville police officer Terry Ware was transporting Heather Breland following her arrest on forgery charges when he sexually assaulted her in the front seat of his cruiser. Ware was prosecuted for the assault and sentenced to prison. Breland sued the city …

What a catch! An ER doc and a software engineer!

06/17/2008
Eric Perteet, of Conyers, was living a lie, and now he’s been arrested on charges of  fraud, after allegedly pretending to be an emergency room doctor at Piedmont Hospital for two months …

Negligent hiring: Take proper steps to avoid the costly pitfall

06/17/2008
In recent years, the Georgia courts have significantly expanded employers’ obligations—and therefore potential liability—in the area of negligent hiring and supervision. At the same time, employees and applicants now enjoy significantly expanded privacy rights. So it’s more important than ever for employers to pay close attention to their application, hiring and background-check policies and practices …

Can we search an employee’s car if we think she’s using drugs at work?

06/17/2008
Q. We suspect an employee has been getting high at work. Over the past two weeks, co-workers have reported that the employee’s pupils were dilated and her speech was slurred. She stares out the window for extended periods of time, she fell while walking down the hall, her appearance is disheveled, and she takes multiple “rest breaks” to go to her car throughout the day. We want to search the employee’s car, but she refuses to let us. Can we search her car anyway? …

The ins and outs of employing minors

06/17/2008
Q. Now that summer is here, we have received applications from students under the age of 18 seeking seasonal employment with our company. Are there any requirements or restrictions that we need to be aware of before we hire a minor? …