• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Employment Law

$20 billion case could reset race bias bar

11/21/2019
A $20 billion lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court could dramatically change what contractors—and employees, potentially—have to prove in order to win a race discrimination case.

Internal harassment complaints: Avoid these 5 mistakes

11/19/2019
Receiving an internal harassment complaint is a critical moment for an employer. How you handle the complaint can affect workplace morale, the likelihood of a lawsuit or an administrative charge and the defenses available to you as an employer, among other things.

Which word doesn’t belong when disciplining a pregnant employee? That’s right: pregnant!

11/18/2019
A little bit of caution goes a long way toward limiting charges of pregnancy-bias discrimination.

Customer preference doesn’t excuse bias

11/14/2019
The customer is always right, right? Wrong! Employers aren’t allowed to bow to customer preferences if they are racist, sexist or otherwise would violate an employment discrimination or public accommodation law.

Discover wrongdoing during FMLA? Fire away

11/14/2019
It’s natural to worry about terminating an employee who is out on FMLA leave. However, the FMLA does not prohibit employers from making employment decisions that they would have made anyway if the employee had never taken leave.

In #MeToo era, you need a contingency plan

11/14/2019
In the days after McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook’s termination for having a consensual romantic relationship with a woman at work, details emerged showing that the fast food company had prepared in advance to handle relationships between C-suite executives and subordinates. Your organization needs a contingency plan, too.

Federal contractor? You’re subject to False Claims Act

11/07/2019
The False Claims Act prohibits federal contractors from firing whistleblowers who report employer wrongdoing.

Best defense: Consistent rules universally enforced

11/07/2019
When an applicant or employee launches a lawsuit, courts naturally end up scrutinizing your organization and its processes. The best defense: Have consistent rules that you universally apply to everyone.

Understand interplay between FMLA, ADA when employee must care for family member

11/07/2019
Employees may have the right to take time off to care for a disabled family member under the FMLA, but the same isn’t true under the ADA for a request for reasonable accommodations of time off to care for the same family member.

Ensure policy spells out exactly how employees should report allegations of sexual harassment

11/07/2019
You will probably survive a harassment lawsuit if you trained all employees how to use the policy and followed up with discipline whenever an investigation uncovered harassment.