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Employment Law

Disabled or injured workers ready to return? Here’s how to help

11/05/2010
Employees may be absent from work for extended periods of time because of illness or injury. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy recently released an online “Return to Work Toolkit” that serves as a one-stop portal to numerous free, online resources for employers and employees coping with return-to-work issues.

Terminating employee? Don’t forget appropriate notifications

11/05/2010

Terminating employees is never easy. Not only do you have to think about the employee’s reaction and those of co-workers who may be worried about their own jobs, you also have to worry whether the employee will sue and how to minimize the risk. One area you have control over is making sure that every terminated employee receives legally mandated termination notices. Here’s a quick guide.

NYC dollar stores settle FLSA complaint

11/05/2010
The owners of 11 New York City dollar stores will pay more than $485,000 to settle complaints they violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by paying workers less than minimum wage, and failing to pay time-and-a-half for overtime hours.

Tyrone man collects $200,000 in ADA lawsuit settlement

11/05/2010
Pennsylvania construction firm Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc. has settled a suit with a Tyrone, N.Y., man after it refused to hire him for a backhoe operator position.

Don’t sweat the small stuff: It’s no basis for lawsuits

11/05/2010

Employees seem to think they are entitled to a perfect workplace, free from any conflict or unpleasantness. But that isn’t true. Heck, it’s not even possible! Courts rarely indulge such claims. They’d rather sort out real discrimination and harassment cases, not waste time on hypersensitive employees.

Court shows no patience for litigious ex-employee

11/05/2010
It happens quite often: An employee you fired for rock-solid reasons sues … and sues … and sues some more. Once a former employee gets lawsuit-happy, there’s no telling how far the litigation process will go. But now there’s good news. State and federal courts are tossing out such cases almost as fast as they come in the door. Appeals courts, too.

Cut your retaliation risk: Make sure training is open to everyone who’s eligible

11/05/2010

Employees who experience retaliation after complaining about bias can sue and win, even if it turns out there was no basis for the original discrimination complaint. The retaliation doesn’t even have to be something serious such as a demotion or firing. It can be something as subtle as lost training opportunities.

Employment law 101: Beware firing immediately after employee returns from FMLA leave

11/05/2010
If you terminate an employee the day he comes back from FMLA leave, plan on getting sued. Timing alone can be enough for the court to let a jury decide the case. That’s true even if your past practices in similar cases don’t show any pattern of FMLA interference.

No employee handbook or written policy? Good luck proving you take harassment seriously

11/05/2010
One reason employers have handbooks is to protect themselves from surprise allegations of harassment. Without a handbook, they are left with having to show that employees knew how to complain. That’s tough if there’s no documentation that you told them how.

Manhattan’s swank Del Posto restaurant sued for lost tips

11/05/2010
A group of 27 current and former employees at celebrity chef Mario Batali’s Del Posto restaurant are suing the restaurant because they say managers illegally skimmed tip-pool funds meant for service workers.