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Employment Law

Judge says injured whistle-blower got railroaded

10/31/2011
An administrative law judge has ruled that Norfolk Southern Rail­way must pay a former employee $122,199 in compensatory and punitive damages after it violated the worker’s rights under whistle-blower provisions of the Federal Railway Safety Act.

MSHA sues granite mine to force it to pay overdue fine

10/31/2011
When the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) cited the owners of a Caldwell County gran­ite mine for 103 safety violations, the company didn’t contest the resulting fines. But they didn’t pay them either, and now the MSHA is suing to collect.

Beware the ever-expanding EEOC harassment lawsuit

10/31/2011
Here’s a worry for employers facing sexual harassment charges: If the EEOC decides to take up the case, it can expand the charges to include employees who never actually complained about the harassment and aren’t even around anymore.

Employee sues under NCEEP? Ask court to throw it out

10/31/2011

When the North Carolina Legislature saw fit to enact the North Carolina Equal Employment Practices Act (NCEEPA), it didn’t go the extra step and authorize individual employee lawsuits to enforce those rights. Instead, the law is just a declaration that discrimination prohibited by federal law also violates public policy.

Good news: EEOC doesn’t have the last word in deciding discrimination cases

10/31/2011

Here’s a bit of good news for employers on the losing end of an EEOC determination that an employee’s discrimination complaint has merit: That determination isn’t the final word—and it doesn’t carry much weight in court. The employee won’t be able to use the determination to prove bias.

You can discipline for email abuse–just don’t thwart ‘concerted’ or ‘protected’ activity

10/31/2011
As soon as employers started equipping employees with email accounts and a list of company email addresses, things started getting complicated. You can punish employees for many email attack campaigns—as long as you first make sure the content doesn’t qualify as concerted or protected activity.

Company, man with dreadlocks settle after jury deadlocks

10/31/2011
Lawrence Transportation has reached a settlement with a job applicant whom it refused to hire unless he cut off his dreadlocks. In addition to an undisclosed payment, the company agreed to implement and enforce policies banning religious discrimination and provide anti-­discrimination training to all employees.

Court: Apply first, then sue for discrimination

10/31/2011
If you want a job, you have to apply for it. If you want a promotion, you have to apply for it. If you want to sue an employer for discrimination in hiring or promotions, you probably should have applied, too, right?

Don’t sweat small stuff–you won’t lose in court

10/31/2011

Some employees expect the workplace to be a perfect place, free of all strife and disharmony. Too bad that’s an unrealistic standard. Employees have to develop some degree of tolerance for slights and inconveniences. And even if callous supervisors and co-workers treat sensitive souls badly, that doesn’t mean discrimination is to blame.

Keep the lawsuit clock on your side: Make sure workers know exact date of actions

10/31/2011
Employees have only a short period of time to file their initial dis­crimi­na­tion claims. The clock starts ticking as soon as the employee knows (or should have known) about some material, potentially adverse job change. That’s why you need to be absolutely clear to employees when you make a job change—and note it in your files.