Investigations of workplace wrongdoing sometimes take unexpected turns. Don’t hesitate to keep digging, no matter where the evidence leads. You may discover that the employee who complained in the first place hasn’t been as innocent as he claims. If it turns out that an apparent victim has actually done something wrong, you can take disciplinary action.

It’s difficult to predict which employee will be the next to sue. That’s why your best defense is to treat every major employment-related decision as a potential lawsuit. How? Back it up with a solid, business-related justification.

An employee who takes FMLA leave is entitled to return to her old job or an equivalent one when she’s ready to return to work. But what if the employee can’t perform her old job, perhaps because of lingering health problems? Reassign her.

Many employers use software to track FMLA eligibility. Most of the time that works fine. But if you decide to terminate an employee because the software told you she wasn’t eligible for FMLA leave, double-check the calculation first. If you confirm she hasn’t worked a total of 52 weeks, you can terminate her.

It’s sad but true: Disabled people are sometimes the butt of jokes at work. Whether the disability is obvious or the disabled employee lets co-workers know about his condition, you can expect somebody to say something inappropriate. Of course, some comments might be good-natured teasing. That doesn’t mean you should tolerate it.

Sexual harassment cases aren’t going away. Employers that don’t take such harassment seriously put their companies in peril. It isn’t enough to come up with a policy. You must also train employees at every level about that policy and explain where harassment victims can go for help. Then you have to follow through and promptly investigate harassment claims. Finally, you must make sure your response is good enough to end the harassment.

Courts hearing ADA cases generally trust employers to establish which job functions are essential and which ones are not. But that doesn’t mean you can trump up job descriptions with “essential functions” that are never performed. Courts sometimes see that as a way to avoid having to reasonably accommodate disabled employees. They’ll only consider those functions that employees perform in reality.

Shlomo Hecht, former chief technology officer for BabyAge.com in Wilkes-Barre, is suing the web-based business for religious discrimination. Hecht, who is Jewish, claims BabyAge.com’s CEO Jack Kiefer frequently made disparaging remarks about Jews and told Hecht that he did not want a “Jew Boy Club” in the office.

Easton-based Lafayette College will pay five women $1 million to settle sexual harassment charges against a supervisor in the public safety division. According to an EEOC complaint, the supervisor repeatedly made lewd gestures and remarks, e-mailed pornography, groped female employees and even forcibly kissed them.

Sexual harassment is often a product of the power and control the harasser wields over the victim because of his or her relative position in the company, regardless of gender. But juries that might quickly side with a female victim sometimes find it difficult to sympathize with a man who has been harmed by harassment. That’s no excuse for employers to take lightly the sexual harassment of men.

Before you post a job opening and begin the search process, be sure the job description is accurate and reflects the experience and qualifications you’re looking for in the ideal candidate. Above all, don’t change the description midstream after you’ve begun reviewing candidates.

Under the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act (PMWA), employees engaged in administrative work aren’t eligible to collect overtime pay. But what about employees who spend a lot of time in the field—calling on clients or prospects, for example?

There’s a flood of employment law litigation sweeping the nation. Blame the recession. Employment-related cases are clogging court dockets at the state and federal levels. The EEOC is fielding more and more employment discrimination claims. Facing these realities, alternative dispute resolution is becoming increasingly popular as parties look for more efficient, less expensive conflict-resolution mechanisms. Arbitration is the type of alternative dispute resolution that’s attracting the most attention.