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Terminations

Don’t deny ADA accommodation due to ‘potential’ seniority break

10/01/2002
After 18 years as a truck driver, Donald Dilley developed back trouble and was limited by his doctor to lifting less than 60 pounds at a time. Dilley asked for routes …

Employer’s extortion ignites wrongful discharge claim

10/01/2002
The owner of a ranch hired B.J. and Nancy Logan to work on his property. When the Logans got a permit to develop their own property near the ranch, the ranch …

The WARN Act: Notify staff before large-scale layoffs

10/01/2002
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires certain employers to give employees 60 days notice before a plant closing or mass layoff. Some states also have plant-closure laws that add additional mandates.

Worker can’t sue for job switch if you have legitimate reasons

10/01/2002
Barbara Policastro was a Northwest Airlines’ sales rep whose territory covered Cincinnati, where she lived. She also had to spend about five days a month servicing cities in northern Kentucky about …

Don’t silence or punish workers who compare their pay

09/01/2002
A marketing director at one of Covenant Care’s nursing facilities attended a meeting of other marketing directors in the company. During the meeting, she joined other directors in a brief discussion …

Don’t fire workers to trim health costs

09/01/2002
During Kathy Smith’s first year in a customer service job, her husband was diagnosed with heart disease and her son with water on the brain. Treatment was covered under the firm’s …

When Can You Fire a Disabled Worker?

09/01/2002

Q. We’ve had a disabled worker on staff for five years. He’s consistently absent or tardy and has trouble working with others and keeping up his job duties. We adjusted his hours, but his poor work forced us to reassign some of his duties and even hire another person to help carry the load. What can we do? —F.F., Texas

Be consistent in reasons for layoffs

09/01/2002
When a Wisconsin company restructured, it laid off a 44-year-old customer service rep. None of her direct supervisors or co-workers took part in deciding which employees would be laid off. But …

Just Say No to Rescinded Resignation

09/01/2002

Q. We have an employee who submitted a dated, signed resignation letter but then changed her mind and wanted the letter back. She was not a good employee, but we let her rescind the letter because we thought we’d be on shaky legal ground. Could we have held her to it? —M.L., Ohio

Don’t wait for disabled to ask: Accommodation is two-way street

08/01/2002
Ray Birton, a cart gatherer and stockman at a Missouri Wal-Mart, occasionally forgot instructions and didn’t clock in and out correctly, resulting in paycheck errors. Birton’s mother gave his manager …