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Articles by The HR Specialist: North Carolina Employment Law
Complex state and local laws in the Tar Heel State can give employers the blues. Aggressive attorneys don’t stop with federal laws like FMLA, ADA and FLSA: they use state and local living-wage statutes, rural codes, plus discrimination and other laws to sue employers for sky’s-the-limit damages. This North Carolina-specific newsletter arrives monthly to help sue-proof every aspect of HR. Written in plain English, it’s your insurance policy for staying in step with current interpretations of state and local laws – and staying out of court. Learn more about HR Specialist: North Carolina Employment Law and the free report you’ll get when you subscribe...
The HR Specialist: North Carolina Employment Law
Five Rockingham firefighters are suing the city, claiming it violated the FLSA when it instituted a new system for calculating overtime in 2010. The change occurred following a lawsuit filed by 10 firefighters in 2009. The city claims the current system is the one firefighters sought in their 2009 suit.
Asheboro-based BJ Con/Sew will pay $75,000 to settle an EEOC national-origin harassment lawsuit filed on behalf of a former employee who says he endured almost daily ethnic slurs for two years.
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Make sure your supervisors know they must consider post-surgery ADA accommodations and should forward such requests to HR. Under no circumstances should an employee be summarily fired just because she’s used up her FMLA leave and still needs help during recovery.
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Before terminating an employee who has racked up absences that may or may not be related to a workplace injury, make sure she has had a chance to show that the injury contributed to her attendance problems.
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When an employee represents himself, prepare for a fight—even if you know the claim doesn’t have much merit. That’s because courts don’t like to toss out cases without giving every benefit of the doubt to employees who can’t find attorneys to represent them.
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A federal court has said it will soon decide a case that may make pregnancy discrimination illegal in North Carolina. At issue is whether North Carolina employers are liable for wrongful discharge if they fire a pregnant woman from her at-will job.
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When an employee approaches you about a religious need that requires accommodation, make sure you consider all the details. Don’t rely on a standard response.
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Some employees who are being sexually harassed may be embarrassed or reluctant to talk about it. Rather than come out and say what happened, they beat around the bush. Smart employers document how they handle vague complaints—and take them just as seriously as other complaints.
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When employees face progressive discipline and think they might be fired, they sometimes suddenly start complaining about alleged sexual harassment. The underlying reason may be legitimate—or it may just be a ploy to stop discipline. It doesn’t mean all discipline has to be put on hold.
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When employers offer severance packages, they often ask employees to waive their rights to sue the employer. That’s a smart strategy, but small discrepancies in the agreement’s wording can make the difference between a successful severance package and a call from the EEOC.
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