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Firing

Employee who fears illness can quit, collect unemployment

02/14/2011
Workers whose employers give them good cause to leave a job are still entitled to unemployment compensation benefits.

Jewel-Osco to pay $3.2 million for violations of the ADA

02/11/2011
Jewel-Osco—the conglomerate that owns the Supervalu, American Drug Stores and Jewel Food Stores chains—has agreed to settle an EEOC lawsuit alleging it violated the ADA when it terminated employees after their medical leaves of absence ended.

Alcoholism: a disability; drunkenness: a firing offense

02/11/2011
Alcoholism may be a disability, but that doesn’t mean alcoholic employees can get away with showing up at work a little tipsy.

Want to ‘fire’ your way out of problems with troublesome employees? Think again

02/11/2011

You’ve been dealing with a particularly difficult employee. He’s constantly claiming he’s being discriminated against in one way or another. But then he breaks a rule, and you spot your chance to fire him—of course, following all your internal procedures to the letter. Finally! Now you can rest easy, believing the employee can’t possibly come back and successfully sue you. Guess again.

Prep for firing with honest investigation

02/11/2011

Courts don’t like it when employees are treated unfairly. On the other hand, judges don’t want to serve as HR courts, either. That’s why they generally defer to management decisions that seem fair and honest. Judges prefer it when employers investigate allegations of employee wrongdoing before they fire someone—but they don’t require that the investigation be perfect.

Chipotle fires workers, faces protests, after ICE audit

02/09/2011
Protesters have been picketing some of Minnesota’s 50 Chipotle restaurants after the McDonald’s-owned company fired hundreds of workers—mainly Latino—because they lacked proper documentation. The firings followed an audit by ICE officials, which have now expanded to other Chipotle restaurants nationwide.

Worry that boss is a bully? Ask subordinates

02/09/2011

You hear a lot about bullies and bullying these days, especially in schools. But bullies grow up. If they’re not stopped, they bring intimidation and violence into the workplace. What’s worse, some of them will become supervisors. If you get wind of a potential bully boss, here’s what to do:

NLRB sanctions Toledo industrial cleaning company

02/09/2011
The National Labor Relations Board has come down hard on Toledo-based Bebley Enterprises, ruling that the company illegally terminated a collective bargaining agreement, stopped contributing to the union’s benefit program, quit collecting union dues and harassed employees who were loyal to the union.

Understand Ohio unemployment comp: Breaking a rule isn’t enough to deny benefits

02/09/2011

You may think that discharging an employee for breaking a company rule automatically means that former employee won’t receive unemployment compensation in Ohio. But that’s not always the case. In fact, breaking a rule isn’t enough. Instead, the measure of whether you had just cause to fire the employee is whether an ordinary person would have done what the employee did under the same circumstances.

NLRB settlement suggests employee Facebook posts are protected

02/08/2011
The National Labor Relations Board has settled with a company that fired an employee for posting negative comments about a boss on her Facebook page. The case seems to signal that employee communications that happen via social media constitute protected activity under federal law. Does your social media policy go too far?