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Employment Law

Managers can pay for their bullying behavior—And so can you

05/27/2008
For the first time, the Indiana Supreme Court has endorsed a claim brought by a former employee against a supervisor (rather than the company for whom he worked) on the grounds that the general harassment was so severe as to constitute illegal bullying …

Concurrently running FMLA leave, vacation time and short-Term disability

05/27/2008
Q. Our policy requires an employee out on FMLA leave to run any accrued vacation or sick time concurrently with FMLA leave until that time is used up. (At that point, the FMLA leave becomes unpaid.) We also have a short-term disability (STD) policy that kicks in after seven consecutive days and lasts up to eight weeks. A pregnant employee recently requested 10 weeks of FMLA leave, starting upon the birth of her child. She currently has 3½ weeks of accrued vacation time. Can we require her to use up all of her vacation time once she goes out on maternity leave, even though she is also receiving STD payments? …

Can we discipline an employee for secretly recording workplace conversations?

05/27/2008
Q. Some employees discovered that a co-worker has been secretly recording conversations with them and some supervisors. One of them brought it to our attention after he grew suspicious that the employee was digging for information about some employment decisions we had made. Several employees have complained about the invasion of their privacy. The company president’s first reaction was to have the employee arrested, but I’m not sure he broke any laws. Our policies prohibit general harassment, but do not specifically address clandestine recordings. Can we discipline this employee? Should we contact police? …

What should we include in our updated employee handbook?

05/27/2008
Q. Our company is looking to revise and update its employee handbook. This will be the first update in several years. Is there anything specific that we should focus on to make sure that we are up-to-date? …

Objective evaluations get lawsuits dismissed

05/27/2008
The quality of your performance evaluation process—whether it is objective or subjective—can determine how a discrimination lawsuit turns out. Handle evaluations improperly, and a case can linger for months. Do it the right way, and the case may be dismissed immediately …

You can require employees to sign agreements to arbitrate employment disputes

05/27/2008
A federal court concluded that New Jersey contract law does allow employers to require employees to arbitrate most employment-related complaints. Plus, if an arbitration agreement contains terms that a court finds invalid, the court may throw those provisions out and still enforce the rest of the agreement …

Court tackles pregame prayer, rules it out of bounds

05/27/2008
East Brunswick High School football coach Marcus Borden ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution when he prayed with his team, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has ruled …

Army engineer arrested for spying

05/27/2008
An 85-year-old former U.S. Army engineer has been arrested on charges of giving classified U.S. documents about nuclear weapons to the Israeli Consulate. Ben-Ami Kadish, who worked at the U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal in Dover from 1963 to 1990, is charged with assisting the same Israeli handler who recruited U. S. Navy analyst Jonathan Pollard …

Misclassifying employees an expensive mistake for Madison firm

05/27/2008
Madison-based Quest Diagnostics has agreed to pay more than $688,772 in back overtime wages to 238 employees following a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investigation. The DOL found that Quest misclassified as exempt the systems analysts working at all of the company’s facilities …

Supreme Court Opens the Door to More Race-Based Retaliation Lawsuits

05/27/2008
Bad news for employers: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on May 27 that employees who suffer retaliation after voicing complaints about on-the-job race discrimination can file lawsuits under a little-known Civil War-era law. The result: increased risk of retaliation lawsuits and bigger jury awards.