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Terminations

Specify if workers must stay to collect bonuses

06/01/2000

Q. Our company pays quarterly and annual bonuses (depending on the position). If an employee is here throughout the entire quarter/year, but leaves before the bonuses are paid out, is he still entitled to the bonus? Our company has no written documentation stating that you must be employed at the time the bonus is paid. —J.S., Colorado

Punctuality isn’t ‘essential’ for all jobs

06/01/2000
Massachusetts Health Research Institute lets employees start work any time between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. and leave after working seven-and-a-half hours. But data-entry worker Michael Ward usually arrived between 9:10 …

Ban all age bias; states OK youth-bias claims

06/01/2000
Kimberly Zanni, a 31-year-old-account executive, was fired and replaced by an older, less qualified woman. One supervisor had told Zanni that she sounded …

Avoid snap decision on whether illness would qualify under FMLA

06/01/2000
When her three-year-old son awoke with a high fever, congestion and an earache, Juanita Caldwell got permission from an assistant manager to miss her morning …

Courts split on damages for FLSA retaliation

06/01/2000
Brian Snapp’s boss fired him after finding out Snapp had complained to the U.S. Labor Department that the company violated federal wage laws. A jury awarded Snapp …

Misleading your employees risks ‘career fraud’ claim

06/01/2000
After General Dynamics reached a settlement in a class-action overtime case, other employees at the company were given the opportunity to “opt in” on the lawsuit in late 1993. But managers allegedly told …

Consider alternatives to cash severance

05/01/2000
If you offer severance packages, don’t assume workers want only money. With rising health care costs, they are choosing less severance pay and more outplacement benefits, such as continued health coverage. …

Don’t let tummy aches turn into entitlements

05/01/2000
Katherine Thorson was fired for excessive absenteeism after missing four days of work due to stomach cramps and medical tests. All of her tests were normal, but weeks later (after her …

Working overtime can be an essential function of the job

05/01/2000
Marvin Davis agreed to work overtime when he accepted a job under a collective bargaining agreement with Florida Power & Light Co. But after he aggravated his back …

Don’t embellish reasons for firing

04/01/2000
When a financial services firm terminates an employee, it must file a Form U-5 outlining the reasons for the firing. While those statements have some immunity …