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Employment Law

Quick fix can help avoid harassment liability

04/01/2007

Q. One of our male supervisors fired what we in HR thought was a poor-performing female employee. During the exit interview, the terminated employee told us that her supervisor fired her because he was sexually harassing her and she threatened to report him if it didn’t stop. It turned out that her claim was legitimate. We immediately called her back to work.

We thought we had dodged a bullet but, unfortunately, we’ve been contacted by her attorney, who threatened a lawsuit unless we agree to settle her claim for a lot of money. We will contact an attorney to represent us, but we want to know if the fact that we brought her right back to work is going to make a difference? —L.W.

Should you pay employees to change unhealthy behaviors?

04/01/2007

Cash is king when it comes to wellness incentives. Studies show that the almighty dollar is the best motivator for employee participation in wellness activities, followed closely by reductions in health insurance premiums …

Avoid these 5 telecommuting liability pitfalls

04/01/2007
As telework’s popularity grows, so do legal concerns for employers. To lower your risks, devise a telecommuting policy that protects you on these fronts.

Pension law makes it OK to help employees choose investments

04/01/2007

No matter how highly educated your employees are, they’re probably not professional investment experts. Yet it’s likely your organization has shifted responsibility for retirement savings to those employees. But now the Pension Protection Act of 2006 makes it safe for employers to arrange for employees to receive personalized, specific advice on investments

Make sure employees know about internal job openings

04/01/2007

It pays to make every effort to publicize job openings to your current staff and make clear how employees should apply. If you don’t, you face potential discrimination claims

Look beyond employee’s VA disability status to determine if he’s disabled under ADA or state law

04/01/2007

Just because the Veteran’s Administration (VA) considers a former soldier to be disabled, that doesn’t automatically mean that person is disabled under other laws, such as the ADA …

Don’t expect early dismissal of FMLA lawsuit even if law doesn’t cover your organization

04/01/2007

Employers that don’t have enough employees to be covered by the FMLA (50 employees) won’t necessarily win dismissal of an FMLA lawsuit right away …

Two Philly officers file lawsuit citing lax response to stalker

04/01/2007

Two married police officers in Philadelphia’s K-9 Unit have sued the police department for allowing a female chief inspector to harass and stalk them for more than a year …

Former editor sues Wilkes-Barre newspaper for age bias, retaliation

04/01/2007

Allison Walzer, former editor of the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, has added a retaliation claim to a pending discrimination lawsuit against the newspaper, where she worked for 24 years …

Worker Doesn’t Have to Say ‘Harassment’ to Make Complaint

04/01/2007

Don’t wait for employees to use the magic words—“sexual harassment”—to begin investigating a complaint. It’s up to you to decipher an employee’s protests to determine if they could fall into that legally dangerous harassment-complaint zone …