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Employment Law

Use hotline to receive employee complaints, prove when litigation clock started ticking

11/08/2010

Courts increasingly insist that employees meet deadlines for filing EEOC or other discrimination complaints. The law allows employees just a short period of time to start the lawsuit process after an employer’s adverse decision. Smart employers have systems that precisely track internal complaints. With those in place, employers can more easily argue that the employee waited too long to sue.

Bias, retaliation settlement strips club of $95,000

11/08/2010

The Papermoon Strip Club in Stuart will pay $95,000 to two black doormen and several white employees to settle complaints of racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation. According to the EEOC, the doormen were subjected to racial slurs and segregated from white employees. White employees who complained about the discrimination were retaliated against.

It’s sometimes OK to ask about expunged records

11/08/2010
Florida’s criminal court dockets are so overloaded that some relatively minor offenses are never tried. And courts often expunge arrest records so people who were charged but never convicted can move on without the shadow of a criminal record hanging over them, affecting their ability to work. However, in Florida, some employers can still ask about expunged criminal records.

Southern Ohio contractor settles race bias lawsuit

11/08/2010

Mareo R. Allen will get his job back at Mike Enyart & Sons Inc., after the construction firm—located in South Point, near the West Virginia border—agreed to settle an EEOC race discrimination suit filed on Allen’s behalf. Allen alleged he was fired in retaliation for complaining about racial harassment while working on a sewer-line installation project.

Mineral Met hung out to dry following noose incident

11/08/2010
Chemical company Mineral Met has agreed to pay $440,000 to settle an EEOC race discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed on behalf of black employees at its Cleveland plant.

Sometimes discrimination claims can bypass the EEOC

11/08/2010
Suppose an employee claims her organization illegally discriminated against someone on the basis of disability—and then the employee is fired. If the employee planned on suing, surely the employer would find out well in advance, because first the employee would have complained to the EEOC, right? Not necessarily.

Temp-to-permanent promotions the norm? Check for unintentional bias toward one group

11/08/2010

Sometimes it makes sense to appoint workers to temporarily fill vacancies and then use your formal promotion process to make permanent appointments. But that practice carries some risk. You could wind up in court if you make those temporary appointments permanent.

Establish zero-tolerance policy on violence and threats–but don’t count on backup from courts

11/08/2010

The almost universal employer response to increased workplace violence has been the implementation of so-called zero-tolerance policies. The problem with zero-tolerance rules is that they only work if they’re uniformly enforced. Employers can’t pick and choose which employee’s behavior violates the policy. To do so invites legal trouble, as the following case shows.

Heart condition isn’t always an ADA disability

11/08/2010

It’s understandable that someone who has had a heart attack and taken time off to recover might assume that he’s disabled under the terms of the ADA. That’s not always the case. As is true of other conditions, it’s only a disability if the heart attack’s residual effects substantially impair a major life function.

Don’t expect heroic catch-up after FMLA leave

11/08/2010

Exempt employees are generally expected to work as long and as hard as they need to in order to get their jobs done. But that doesn’t mean employers should expect exempt employees returning from FMLA leave to burn the midnight oil to get caught up if there was no plan in place to pick up the slack during the absence. Insisting on that is an invitation to be sued for retaliation.