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Firing

Track discipline by type and protected characteristics

10/01/2007

Do you have ready access to your organization’s discipline records? Can you say with certainty that everyone charged with the same misconduct receives the same punishment? Or is there bias hiding in those records? The best way to check is to group discipline by type of misconduct and punishment and then compare employees’ sex, race, age and other protected characteristics against punishment for the same conduct …

Origin not the sole factor in national-Origin discrimination

10/01/2007

You know it’s illegal to discriminate against someone based on his or her national origin. You may not know that it’s also illegal to discriminate against someone who simply has characteristics that reflect a particular heritage, whether or not he or she claims a particular heritage …

Easy come, easy go: Judge cuts huge discrimination award 92%

10/01/2007

Carol Tamao had won a $6 million verdict in her Age Discrimination in Employment Act and ADA lawsuit after her supervisor implied her age was a factor in her termination. But a federal judge ruled the jury got carried away when it started handing out her former employer’s money …

Tough attendance policy? Careful when calling ‘Strike three’

10/01/2007

To combat absenteeism, many organizations use a progressive discipline approach. These plans feature escalating penalties plus a no-excuses approach to the final violation. Some plans call for automatic termination when an employee hits a specific number of days absent or times tardy. That’s fine. Those measures may decrease late arrivals and cut down on unexcused absences. But if a termination is about occur, HR must be sure the last incident is beyond question …

Even isolated comments can trigger age discrimination suits

10/01/2007

Train managers and supervisors: No age-related comments! None. A simple sentence might not form the entire basis for an age discrimination lawsuit, but it can add fuel to an otherwise-smoldering case …

Whistle-Blower turns broken code into $90,000

10/01/2007

A fired Bay City municipal building inspector has his job back and is $90,000 richer. The inspector refused to issue a building permit because it conformed to a defunct building code, but not the newly enacted one …

EEOC discrimination letter? It’s not the final word

10/01/2007

The EEOC is the first stop in a Title VII discrimination case, but not the last. Often, the agency will say there’s no case. Sometimes, however, it will issue a letter stating “determination that discrimination took place.” But that decision is by no means final. When the case goes to federal court, judges are free to ignore the EEOC’s determination …

Streaming Faith faces multimillion-Dollar lawsuit

10/01/2007

Rodney Sampson, co-founder and former CEO of Streaming Faith and its parent company, the Christian-media giant Multicast Media Technologies, has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the company alleging wrongful termination and race discrimination …

Creating an effective blog policy to limit employer liability

10/01/2007

Employment lawyers have been warning for some time that blogs will one day be a volatile issue in the workplace. Recent events show that day has arrived. For example, a member of the Cherokee County, GA, Planning Commission provoked a firestorm of controversy after an online post she made advocated dismantling Israel to achieve peace in the Middle East. The outcry forced her to resign …

Mandating New-Age spirituality at work can trigger an Old-School lawsuit

10/01/2007

While you can encourage employees to follow certain Judeo-Christian values at work, such as cooperation, honesty and kindness, it’s never appropriate to require adherence to a particular religion or religious practices. Even if your organization’s leaders have strong religious beliefs, it must accommodate workers who don’t agree with that stance. That may mean excusing workers from retreats, prayer groups or other religious-based activities …