Is your organization a subsidiary of an overseas company? If so, you may have to warn managers who are used to a different set of rules that comments about age preference can lead to trouble.

Greater Metroplex Interiors, a Southlake drywall and light construction company, has agreed to settle claims that it fired a female employee in retaliation for her complaints about sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

Q. Can I implement a rule against hiring people who are overweight?

Like the ADA, Ohio’s disability discrimination law covers only some injuries, illnesses and conditions. It doesn’t cover temporary injuries.

When promotion processes bypass qualified candidates, discrimination lawsuits are almost sure to follow. That’s because employees can easily poke holes in complex candidate-ranking systems, and supervisor bias emerges when promotions are on the line. If you have set criteria for promotions, make sure you follow your own rules.

Protecting yourself and your organization from lawsuits starts the minute you decide to hire someone. Potential lawsuit land mines line your path. To stay out of court, build your hiring process around these principles:

If you’re looking to remedy past discrimination by adopting employment policies that encourage minority hiring, watch out! You may be vulnerable to a reverse discrimination lawsuit. That may be true even if your policies resulted from a court order to address discrimination.

Technology changes fast, and so do the skills employees need to succeed in their jobs. But some employees don’t feel comfortable taking the steps needed to adapt. If those employees happen to be older and you end up having to replace them, you could face an age discrimination lawsuit. You can avoid such lawsuits with a good skill-building plan ...

When co-workers involved in a romantic relationship break up, tensions can boil over in the workplace. And when an ugly situation creates a need for discipline, things get sticky for employers. Be wary of any discipline that targets just one of the former lovebirds. As the following case shows, doing so can lead to a sex discrimination lawsuit.

The EEOC has filed a disability discrimination lawsuit against UPS in federal court in Chicago. The suit alleges the package delivery giant consistently refuses to allow disabled workers to take extended medical leave as a reasonable accommodation.

Your supervisors have probably heard the horror stories of how negative performance reviews have sparked lawsuits from disgruntled employees. That could cause some supervisors to shy away from criticism and give excessively positive reviews to even their poorest-performing workers. The better thing to do is to urge your supervisors to “get real” with reviews.

A U.S. District Court jury in Texas has awarded $992,500 in an age discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee of the company that provides food and beverage services for El Paso International Airport.

Q. We have been threatened with a race discrimination lawsuit. Frankly, we think we made a mistake. Can we settle the matter just between the employee and us?

An Alice-based oil field services company has settled a reverse race discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC. The commission filed the suit in 2008 on behalf of Bert Yaklin, a white parts-department employee of Coil Tubing Services, which supports the petroleum industry in Texas and Louisiana.

Although state and federal laws protect new mothers from discrimination, the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled it was legitimate for an employer to fire an employee who did not ask for an accommodation to pump breast milk. The court concluded that the employer didn’t discriminate on the basis of sex, but simply terminated an employee for insubordination.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in late September upheld a lower court ruling that the National Football League cannot suspend Minnesota Vikings defensive tackles Kevin Williams and Pat Williams for violating the sport’s drug policy.

A federal court hearing a North Carolina case has dismissed a discrimination lawsuit based on failure to file that lawsuit within a shortened time limit that the parties had agreed they would use.

Sometimes, it makes financial sense for companies to engage workers as independent contractors rather than as employees. It can have advantages for workers, too. But whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor has nothing to do with the desires of the organization or the worker. Not even a written contract can make someone an independent contractor if that status isn’t legitimate.

Do you “play favorites” with certain employees? Most managers would probably say “no,” but people often harbor unconscious perceptions that can influence day-to-day decision-making and job reviews of the employees they manage. Several factors unrelated to employee performance can impact evaluations conducted by managers.

Do you "play favorites” with certain employees? Most managers would probably say “no,” but people often harbor unconscious perceptions that can influence day-to-day decision-making and job reviews of the employees they manage. Several factors unrelated to employee performance can impact evaluations conducted by managers.

Talking with employees about their performance problems can be an uncomfortable moment for any manager. But it’s also a crucial part of the job and, if done well, will ultimately make a manager’s job much easier. Here are seven steps to planning and executing such discussions:

If I had to boil employment law into one overarching maxim, it would be this: Be fair and document everything, in case someone thinks you’re not being fair. If you doubt the importance of thorough documentation, consider two recent cases decided by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has issued an opinion that may result in many more sex discrimination lawsuits at work. The case allowed an avowedly homosexual man to file a sex discrimination and harassment lawsuit based on his effeminate mannerisms—even as the court reiterated that sexual orientation isn’t covered by Title VII.

The 7th Circuit’s recent opinion in Martino v. MCI represents the first opportunity for that court to apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s recently clarified standard for determining liability in disparate-treatment cases brought under the ADEA. Together, the two decisions make it harder for employees to win some age discrimination lawsuits.

Q. The attorney for one of my former employees sent a letter demanding payment for overtime compensation. The letter threatened to sue me personally, along with my corporation. I understood that only the employer—the company—and not the CEO or owners of the corporation could be sued under employment discrimination laws. Can I be sued personally for wage-and-hour claims?

E-mail—often quick and informal—is the standard for most business communications these days. But if you’re too casual in the way you word e-mails, you could wind up in lots of legal trouble, as the following case shows.

One good way to eliminate discrimination lawsuits is to have the same manager who hired an employee also handle the termination if you need to let the employee go.

The Retaliatory Employment Discrimination Act is intended to prevent employers from punishing employees for reporting unsafe or illegal working conditions or filing workers’ compensation claims. But recently, employees and their lawyers have tried to use REDA to claim more general retaliation for reporting allegations of race discrimination. Fortunately, the courts are shutting the doors on such claims.

North Carolina state employees who take their discrimination complaints to the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings lose the right to litigate the same claims later in federal court under Title VII. They don’t get two bites at the apple.

Performance improvement plans (PIPs) are great tools to help underperforming employees come up to standards. But some employees think they can file a lawsuit anytime they are placed on a PIP or are justified in quitting. As the following case shows, that’s not necessarily true.

The rise of electronic communication has forced employers and courts to take a fresh look at many issues that used to be considered routine. The age-old concept of attorney-client privilege is the latest one to whipsaw through the courts.

You are no doubt familiar with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It prohibits various kinds of discrimination and also spells out tight deadlines for when employees must file complaints with a state discrimination agency or the EEOC. But there is another avenue employees can use to get into federal court, as long as race is at the core of the discrimination claim: Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act.

Employers that support pregnant and working mothers fare better if they do get sued by someone who believes she suffered pregnancy discrimination. That’s because courts are reluctant to believe that an organization would suddenly become biased after demonstrating a history of progressive policies for pregnant women and working mothers.

Age-discrimination lawsuits have shot up in recent years, climbing 29% last year alone. But a recent pro-business ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court will make it harder for employees to prove age bias in the workplace. Employee advocacy groups are crying foul.

Employees are entitled to a workplace free of discrimination. That includes having equal access to training. In recent months, several lawsuits have been triggered because supervisors allegedly favored certain employees for training opportunities at the expense of other employees who belong to a protected category.

Employers know they are not supposed to discriminate against employees based on protected characteristics such as race, age or sex. But HR can’t be everywhere, and in large organizations, it may be hard to monitor equal treatment. A centralized discipline-tracking system can help you check for possible hidden discrimination by comparing proposed discipline against past discipline.

In the days before ending its 2008-09 term, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two important employment law rulings. Now it's harder for employees to win age bias lawsuits. Also, the court ruled on race bias in pre-hire testing.

Have you checked your company’s bulletin boards lately? Do they show the correct, updated federal- and state-law posters? As this week’s new court ruling shows, poster mistakes can actually breathe new life into supposedly dead employment lawsuits …

Are some of your organization’s supervisors still stuck in the Dark Ages when it comes to attitudes about pregnancy, childbirth and child care? If so, your organization may be a few off-base questions away from triggering a discrimination lawsuit. Remind managers and supervisors to keep their opinions on mothers and motherhood to themselves.

In a perfect world, no one would ever utter a slur or make a derogatory comment. But this isn’t a perfect world, and employees come to work with emotional and cultural baggage. It’s up HR to make sure that baggage doesn’t turn into a discrimination lawsuit. 

Terminations aren’t always clean. Sometimes they’re damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situations. That’s often so when you conclude that an employee harassed another and must be terminated. With nothing to lose, the fired employee may try to concoct a discrimination lawsuit.

When a supervisor says something insensitive, employers must fix the problem and then make sure the comment doesn’t reflect some sort of deep bias. Follow up on the comment with appropriate discipline and then check to see that any discipline recommended by the supervisor is based on independently verifiable information.

Employees who are terminated for disciplinary infractions often claim they were singled out because of bias against some protected characteristic. But the fact is, every employee belongs to some protected class—whether based on sex, age, race, disability or another characteristic. The only way to protect against discrimination lawsuits is to thoroughly document every disciplinary action.

You and the supervisors at your organization have read horror stories of negative performance reviews spawning lawsuits from disgruntled employees. As a result, some supervisors may shy away from rating someone lower than his or her colleagues. That fear is one main reason too many reviews are positive even if performance is average or poor. The better thing to do is to urge your supervisors to “get real” with reviews.

When faced with an employee who may have a physical or mental disability, a manager's legal antenna should go up right away. The ADA requires employers to engage in an interactive dialog with employees to determine whether a disability can be accommodated. Do it wrong, and you're probably looking at a lawsuit. Here's how to handle the conversation.

Federal anti-discrimination law says employers must try to “reasonably accommodate” employees’ “sincerely held religious beliefs or practices,” as long as the accommodations wouldn’t place an undue hardship on their organizations. What religious practices would be deemed legitimate in the EEOC’s eyes?

The EEOC recently filed suit against AHD Houston, claiming that Mary Bassi, a waitress at Cover Girls strip club, was fired because of her age. The federal agency brought suit against the strip club’s parent company, arguing that Bassi was fired and replaced by younger servers even though she was popular with customers ...

Employees who are fired have little to lose and everything to gain by filing a discrimination lawsuit. That’s why you should be prepared to show exactly why you terminated an employee and how the punishment fit the crime—especially if others kept their jobs after similar violations.

Sometimes, the HR business makes for strange bedfellows. Consider what happened in one recent case when the U.S. Department of Justice sued the city of Dayton, claiming its rules for hiring police officers and firefighters unfairly screened out black candidates. The police and firefighters union stepped in to intervene in the litigation.

Q. One of our former employees filed a discrimination lawsuit against the company. She subsequently filed for bankruptcy, but failed to include the pending lawsuit as an asset in the bankruptcy estate. She eventually obtained a bankruptcy discharge. Will the company now be able to have her discrimination lawsuit dismissed?

An employee who belongs to a protected class can win a discrimination lawsuit if she shows that a similarly situated co-worker who doesn’t belong to the same protected class got more lenient treatment than she did for the same rule violation or behavior. Therefore, be prepared to show in every case that you treated all employees equally.

A court has ruled that employees who file harassment and discrimination lawsuits can’t tack on charges of negligent infliction of emotional distress. Instead, the court said emotional damage claims allegedly caused by negligence are the sole province of the New Jersey workers’ compensation system.

In 2007, the EEOC released a set of guidelines advising employers on issues related to caregiver bias. Following up on that issue, the commission has supplemented those guidelines with recommendations designed to help employers “reduce the chance of EEO violations against caregivers.” It’s imperative that companies begin to train managers and supervisors on the content of this most recent guidance.

Last year, U.S. employees filed a record number of legal complaints claiming they suffered discrimination at work. You know that U.S. anti-discrimination laws require managers to treat all applicants and employees equally. But what, specifically, do the laws require of supervisors and managers? Here’s a rundown:

Q. When I check a prospective employee’s job references, more and more I find that prior employers are unwilling to give any information other than confirming dates of prior employment. It makes it really difficult to accurately screen job applicants. Isn’t there a law that protects an employer that provides a job reference?

Employers are often advised to have the same managers who hired an employee also make the termination decision. The idea is that doing so may scuttle a discrimination lawsuit because it’s illogical for a manager to hire a member of a protected class and then turn around and fire him because of bias against that protected class. Don’t use it as an excuse to get sloppy with record-keeping and documentation.

Q. As a law enforcement agency, we have several employees who want to wear religious garb with their uniforms. Our uniform regulations do not provide any accommodation for religious symbols or dress. Can we require strict compliance with the uniform regulation without violating religious discrimination laws?

Employees are entitled to a workplace free of discrimination. That includes having equal access to training. For example, favoring some employees for training opportunities at the expense of other employees who belong to a protected class may cause a discrimination lawsuit.

The economy is a shambles, and employers are doing everything they can to stay in business. That includes terminations, salary and wage cuts and temporary furloughs. Nearly every one of those moves carries litigation risk. Have your company’s personnel policies and practices had a checkup lately? A comprehensive audit is one of the easiest ways to spot problems.

In an important employer victory, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that for employees to successfully bring Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) lawsuits, they must now show that age discrimination was the cause—not just one of several possible contributing factors—of their termination or other adverse job action.

In what some employment law attorneys are calling one of the most important employment law cases of the decade, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 29 that the city of New Haven shouldn’t have thrown out promotion test results of all firefighters just because it feared the test would have a disparate impact on black firefighters. What's the practical impact? Read on ...

Siding with employers, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that union contracts could bind employees to arbitrate discrimination claims under federal law. The court ruled against a group of fired night watchmen in New York who wanted to pursue age discrimination lawsuits in court.

You don’t have to tolerate foul language ... Customer gripe caused firing? Get it in writing ... Ledbetter Act already spurring more pay cases ... Track when you notify worker of firing ... No signature? Settlement may still be binding.

The EEOC and state and local agencies have been filing more administrative charges in recent years. As the recession deepens and more people lose their jobs, that trend is likely to continue. Because administrative charges can be precursors to discrimination lawsuits, it’s critical for you to handle them properly. These 10 tips will help you prepare to respond:

A jury recently awarded $900,000 to a former employee of the Texas Commission on Human Rights, which is responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws, for firing her in retaliation for complaining about discrimination against the agency’s own employees.

For more than a decade, Minnesota courts have recognized a person’s right to privacy. Most employers are aware that this right extends to the workplace, but many still run into potential employee-privacy trouble. But with some upfront planning and consideration, HR professionals can help their organizations avoid privacy pitfalls and still protect their interests.

A Houston manufacturing company has paid $1.6 million in back wages to 1,751 employee, a federal jury in Newark has awarded $2.5 million in damages to 343 sales managers employed by office superstore Staples and even the feds can’t keep overtime law straight. Overtime violations were on the rise this month. Here's a rundown of a few recent cases.

Does your organization allow or tacitly condone it (by ignoring it) when employees criticize a co-worker who associates with members of a different protected class? If so, you should be aware that disciplining that employee can bring on a lawsuit.

If your organization operates several shifts to get its work done, you probably have a system in place to make sure shift assignments are drawn up fairly. If you don’t, consider implementing such a system now.

There’s a silver lining to the rising number of employment lawsuits: Courts are losing patience with applicants, employees and former employees who file discrimination lawsuits that have no basis in reality. Recently, the 6th Circuit approved sanctions against such employees and their attorneys.

When it comes to discharging employees for alleged dishonesty, here’s some sound advice for managers and supervisors: Don’t discuss why the employee was terminated with anyone who doesn’t need to know. Keep the information private to avoid a possible defamation lawsuit.

Employers, beware: More employees are suing over so-called association discrimination, claiming their friendships or other relationships with black employees have resulted in discrimination against them, in addition to their acquaintances. Recently, the 6th Circuit came up with guidelines for when employees can sue based on their relationships with black employees.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to reconsider whether an enormous sex discrimination lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart will proceed as a class-action case.

A new EEOC document spells out the best practices employers should follow to avoid discriminating against workers who care for ill family members, an issue that's especially critical in a down economy. Follow our links to download your copy of this important EEOC guidance.

Employees do the darnedest things, and HR and managers frequently wind up trying to undo the damage. Our newest webinar — Today's Most Bizarre Recent Workplace Cases: How to Prevent Outrageous Workplace Behavior (May 28) — tells tales of outrageous employee behavior ... and the lawsuit against the employer that followed. Here’s our take on the topic, with cases pulled from the pages of our HR Specialist newsletters.

It’s becoming a common problem: An employer discovers disparaging comments on an employee’s Facebook, MySpace or personal blog. Maybe a post reveals internal company information. Can the employer take disciplinary action? It depends.

Last year, U.S. employees filed a record number of legal complaints claiming they suffered discrimination at work. You know that U.S. anti-discrimination laws require managers to treat all applicants and employees equally. But what, specifically, do the laws require of supervisors and managers? Here’s a rundown.

An employer made a job offer to someone, but then rescinded it. Then the employer hired another applicant two months later. Is there anything illegal about that?

On Jan. 29, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which may be the most important change in anti-discrimination laws in decades. It applies to all pending compensation-related lawsuits, but limits back pay to two years. Employers can look ahead to many years of legal wrangling over the interpretation of the seven key words of the act: “a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice.”

The EEOC and state and local agencies have been filing more administrative charges in recent years and that trend is likely to continue. Because administrative charges can be precursors to discrimination lawsuits, it’s critical for you to handle them properly. These 10 tips will help you prepare to respond.

Even the feds can’t keep overtime law straight. An arbitrator has ruled that the EEOC—of all agencies!—willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by forcing employees to take comp time instead of overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours a week. Need more proof that there's an irony epidemic these days? Increasing numbers of lawsuits are being filed against ... lawyers!

In this brutal economy, desperate applicants—and current workers who believe they may be laid off soon—are trying an interesting tactic: They’re volunteering to work for less pay … sometimes much less. A new court ruling shows why you should take those offers seriously.

Q. If an employee is suing our company, what are the benefits of offering her job back while the litigation is ongoing?

Remind all managers and supervisors to keep any thoughts on insurance costs to themselves. If older employees end up being disproportionally affected by a reduction in force, any comments on insuring older employees may come back to haunt you.

When it comes to disciplining employees, one size almost never fits all. An individual approach—one that considers the very specific circumstances that led to the discipline—is usually best.

A Florida employee who was fired for saying “Merry Christmas” when answering the phone instead of the approved “Happy holidays” has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against her former employer.

Q. When an employee requested a reduced schedule as an accommodation of his medical condition, we agreed. He has now told us that he is able to work full time. However, because of business conditions, we’d prefer to keep him at a reduced schedule. Do we have to reinstate him to his full-time job?

The EEOC and state and local agencies have been filing more and more administrative charges in recent years. As the recession deepens and more people lose their jobs, that trend is likely to continue. Because administrative charges can be precursors to discrimination lawsuits, it’s critical for you to handle them properly.

Pay discrimination has received lots of attention lately, especially since the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act became law in January. Employees now have longer to sue over pay disparity.

There’s a silver lining to the rising number of employment lawsuits: Courts are losing patience with applicants, employees and former employees who file discrimination lawsuits that have no basis in reality. Recently, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals approved sanctions against such employees and their attorneys.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers North Carolina employers, has issued a no-nonsense opinion full of common sense: Employees can’t bring an employment discrimination lawsuit because they didn’t get a job that doesn’t exist or for which applicants aren’t being sought.

Is your company vulnerable to employees’ claims that they weren’t paid the right amount due to company policy or discrimination? Now’s a dangerous time to answer “yes” or “I don’t know.” Reason: A perfect storm of trends is prompting more U.S. workers to pursue their pay-related claims in court.

Discrimination at work is perfectly legal in some countries, and foreign-born managers and executives who work for U.S. employers may sometimes say things that show ignorance of U.S. laws. Those words can come back to haunt an employer that is sued for age discrimination.

Older employees who learn they might be laid off for economic reasons—especially those who have recently spoken with an employment lawyer—have begun trying an interesting tactic: They’re volunteering to work for less pay. Take those offers seriously.

The calendar turns to spring, and you know what’s coming. It’s that time of year when employers are swamped with requests from college students for unpaid internships. The benefits of the symbiotic relationship are obvious. But the legal risks are not ...

With unemployment at its highest level since 1983, many applicants have far more experience and education than the job requires. But be alert: Advise hiring managers to avoid using the term “overqualified” in front of job candidates or in any written description of them. Rejected applicants could view the term as an age-related code word, thus sparking an age discrimination lawsuit.

As the economy heads south, many of your employees have probably considered—or already found—second jobs to supplement their incomes. Most of the time, moonlighting poses no conflict with your organization’s work. But an employee’s second job could lower productivity and morale. It could create liability for you.

Sometimes, employees with disabilities don’t choose to let their employers know. If such an employee needs an accommodation such as a transfer to a less stressful position, she may make the request but never explain why. Then, when she is turned down, she may sue and allege she said she needed the transfer because of her disability.

You don’t always have to promote the best educated or most experienced employee—but you must at least have a good explanation why you chose another candidate.

Q. We have an employee out on FMLA leave and have just learned that she will not be able to return to work when her FMLA entitlement expires. Should we go ahead and send her a termination notice now?

It can happen to the best manager or HR professional. You discipline or demote an employee, and then, when she files an internal grievance or asks the company to reconsider, you conclude she shouldn’t have been disciplined or demoted in the first place. What should you do?

Most minor grievances never add up to a discrimination lawsuit. That’s why you shouldn’t lose too much sleep over employees who whine about every little problem. Employees—even those belonging to a protected class—must be able to tolerate minor annoyances. Judges don’t like having to referee workplace pettiness.

If you're like lots of employers, you've probably been inundated with résumés from desperate people applying for anything that resembles a job. Many of them have far more experience and education than you need. They're "overqualified." Do you dare tell them so?

Now that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is the law of the land, it may be time to revisit how you set starting and incumbent salaries. If you currently allow managers and supervisors flexibility on pay issues, consider reducing that discretion.

Even bosses who’ve been taught that one word can trigger a harassment or discrimination lawsuit can put their foot firmly in their mouths. If that’s the case and an employee starts the legal wheels in motion, it’s usually best to settle the case and move on.

While employee handbooks are not required by law, they can prove essential — especially for small business owners that can't afford to lose a harassment or discrimination lawsuit. The employee handbook has become an essential tool in the employer’s arsenal to defend against liability for employment decisions.

Greece Central School District has settled a $1 million age discrimination lawsuit with elementary school teacher Mary Donlon for $235,000.

The Ohio Department of Transportation’s equal employment opportunity contracts coordinator, responsible for making sure agency vendors comply with state and federal anti-discrimination laws, has been punished for sending racist and sexist messages through the agency’s e-mail system.

Dulzia Burchette, a black former saleswoman for the preppy-glam Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store chain in New York City, is suing the Ohio-based retailer for racial discrimination.

Settling with an employee who has filed a discrimination lawsuit? If the EEOC gets involved, it can continue the case on its own—and may be able to get a court to order you to take corrective measures that go far beyond your settlement terms. That’s one good reason to conduct your own thorough investigation before you settle with the employee.

Judges are naturally suspicious. They regularly see the worst of humanity, and many don’t have the rosiest outlook on life. So when they hear that an employer suddenly disciplined an employee who has put in decades of service with nary a blot on her disciplinary record, they think “age discrimination.”

Q. How long do I have to keep employees’ personnel files after their terminations?

Sometimes employees who have agreed to accept settlements in return for dropping discrimination claims change their minds—especially if they believe the employer didn’t deliver everything it promised in the settlements. They’d rather ditch the agreements and restart the original lawsuits. They can’t.

Employees who claim they were fired or didn’t get hired because of age discrimination don’t have to prove that the employee who was hired or retained was younger than age 40. Instead, they need only show that the other employee was at least seven years younger.

St. Cloud-based Gold’n Plump has agreed to pay $215,000 to a group of Somali Muslim workers to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit brought by the EEOC. The company also granted the workers an extra paid break for prayer during the second half of each shift.

If your organization isn’t already planning or implementing measures to cut labor costs, it may soon have to. News that the United States has been in a recession since December 2007 suggests that HR professionals should prepare to reduce the labor burden—if only as a contingency plan.

A federal judge has given final approval to the settlement of a race discrimination lawsuit brought by financial advisors against Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. The settlement establishes a $16 million fund, of which $14 million will be divided among class members who submitted claims.

Surprise! Supervisors sometimes say dumb things. It may be entirely innocent—they simply don’t realize the impact their words may have. If that’s the case, and someone complains, it may be best to settle the case and move on.

HR Law 101: On Jan. 29, 2009, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act took effect, making it easier for women and others to sue for pay discrimination that may date back decades. The law, retroactive to May 2007, liberalizes statutes of limitations on when employees can file such lawsuits. 

HR Law 101: Protecting yourself and your company from lawsuits starts the minute you decide to hire someone. Potential lawsuit land mines line your path. Federal laws provide a patchwork of legislation protecting workers and applicants from discrimination by employers ...

By now you know that employers can’t fire or otherwise punish employees because they’re pregnant. But what about employees who choose to have an abortion? Make sure your supervisors know it’s illegal to discriminate against them, too.

Employees and their lawyers are always trying to find new ways to expand the claims they can make against employers. They try novel approaches to try to sweeten the recovery pot, as the following case shows.

President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act on Jan. 29, making it easier for women and others to sue for pay discrimination that may date back decades. Drafted in response to a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said employees had at most 300 days to file pay discrimination complaints, the new law counts each unfairly low paycheck as a fresh discriminatory act.

Lawsuits by employees against their employers have grown tremendously in the past decade. Sometimes those lawsuits have merit, sometimes they don’t. Here are 12 of the biggest manager mistakes that harm an organization’s credibility in court. Use these points as a checklist to shore up your personal employment-law defense.

Expect swift confirmation of President Obama's nominees to head the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, Labor and Justice. And expect the Obama administration to take a far harder line than the Bush administration did against organizations that break employment-related laws.

Lawyers are always looking for novel ways to sue on behalf of employees. One such recent attempt involves trying to apply the RICO Act—originally meant to combat organized crime—against employers. If successful, such lawsuits could result in more than lost dollars: Managers and supervisors could go to jail.

If some of your managers and supervisors steer career and business opportunities to favored subordinates and keep others from finding out about them, watch out. If those missed opportunities wind up depriving employees of potential financial rewards, that could lead to discrimination lawsuits.

The 111th Congress wasted no time signaling its intention to enact employment law legislation that dramatically favors employees, quickly passing both the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. They promise equal pay for equal work. Find out why business and HR groups oppose both measures.

Employees do the darnedest things, and HR frequently winds up trying to undo the damage. One of the highlights of HR Specialist’s upcoming Labor and Employment Law Advanced Practices Symposium will be a session on “The Most Bizarre Recent Workplace Cases—and What You Can Learn from Them.” Here’s our take on the topic, with cases pulled from the pages of HR Specialist newsletters.

Erin Primmer, former producer of “The Montel Williams Show,” has increased the amount of her disability discrimination lawsuit against CBS by a whopping $3 million. Primmer claims she was wrongfully fired after she collapsed from a brain aneurysm in 2007 ...

Frank Bruno aced his first round of interviews for an HR director job at Unitek USA in Pennsylvania. But during his final interview, one of the company’s board members asked the 55-year-old Bruno, “How old are you, 78?”

Employees ask for and take medical leave for all sorts of reasons. That doesn’t mean their employers know when an employee is disabled. But that doesn’t stop some employees from trying to use their leave as evidence in a discrimination lawsuit ...

It’s easy to understand why supervisors and managers get upset when one of their subordinates files an EEOC complaint. After all, how can you not take it personally if someone says you discriminated based on race or sex or for some other illegal reason? But the worst thing those managers and supervisors can do is punish the subordinate.

Luther Spears worked for the Kroger Company for 24 years. He repeatedly applied for management positions in the produce department, but was never promoted. Meanwhile, Spears, who is black, trained younger white employees who were promoted over him. Spears finally filed a complaint with the EEOC ...

One way to reduce your labor budget is to terminate staff members who are paid the most and replace them with employees who earn less. But be careful before you implement a layoff based on seniority.

A federal district court judge recently approved a $33 million settlement reached between Citigroup and female financial advisors in its Smith Barney unit.

If the EEOC decides not to pursue an employee's discrimination case itself, it will issue a “Right to sue” letter. Employees then have up to 90 days to file a federal lawsuit. But before you dance a little jig on the 90th day, consider this ...

It’s OK to favor applicants who’ve proven they can stick with a job for a while. That’s not discrimination, as a recent court ruling shows. The key: Allow employees to explain job gaps ...

Many of the millions who post information online never think a potential employer might read what they post. Meanwhile, employers believe that if the information is available online for the viewing, they have an obligation to look. However, several laws may restrict how you conduct the search or how you use the information.

Employees who file a discrimination claim with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights within the one-year deadline set by the Minnesota Human Rights Act get an extension of time to file a lawsuit directly in court. That’s the conclusion recently reached by the Court of Appeals of Minnesota.

As the impact of the global economic crisis takes hold, a quarter of U.S. employers expect to make layoffs in the next 12 months. Find out how employers nationwide are hunkering down—and the HR lessons you can apply to your organization.

Churches, church schools and other religious institutions don’t always have to follow federal employment laws. That’s because religious entities are entitled to operate free of interference with their religious practices—if the employees in question are part of that religious practice.

A class of television writers reached a $4.5 million settlement in an age discrimination lawsuit it brought against International Creative Management (ICM), one of Hollywood’s “Big Five” talent agencies.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich recently signed an update to the state’s decade-old genetic nondiscrimination law, which prohibits employers from using genetic information against employees. In some situations, the state law exceeds the protections granted under the federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) enacted this spring ...

The U.S. economy was already on the brink last month when the Wall Street-fueled financial crisis came and pushed it over the edge. Organizations nationwide are being forced to slash costs, which often means cutting payrolls. Too often, however, employers make tactical errors during layoffs. Here are six key steps to help keep layoffs as legally painless as possible:

Although North Carolina is an at-will employment state—that is, employees can be fired for any reason or no reason at all as long as it is not a reason prohibited by law—that doesn’t mean that there aren’t exceptions. One of those is the so-called “public policy” exception, which allows employees to sue for wrongful discharge if their firings violate North Carolina public policy.

The EEOC recently filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against Time Insurance Agency of Austin, alleging pregnancy discrimination against a female job applicant.

If you have employees or operations in New York City, your sexual harassment and discrimination policies must reflect the strict rules employers are required to follow under the New York City Human Rights Law. It all adds up to a challenging HR environment. Your best bet in New York City—adopt a zero-tolerance policy for any sort of sexual, racial or other harassment.

The EEOC has filed a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit against Sterling Jewelers in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York in Buffalo.

Change. America voted for it, and the HR world will certainly receive its fair share next year. The arrival in Washington of President-elect Obama and a firmly Democratic-controlled Congress will spark an array of legislative and regulatory proposals that could rewrite the employment law rule book.

Your company probably put up a Christmas tree to brighten the workplace during the holidays. Don't be surprised if an employee suggests putting up other symbols of the season, such as a menorah. If you reject that suggestion, should you worry that you’ll be ringing in the New Year with a religious discrimination lawsuit?

At first glance, the federal ADEA appears rather straightforward: It protects people age 40 and older from employment discrimination based on their age. But the law can affect just about anything managers do, from asking questions in job interviews to assigning job duties ...

As the impact of the global economic crisis takes hold, a quarter of U.S. employers expect to make layoffs in the next 12 months—if they haven’t already done so. However, most companies are focusing on increased employee communication and smaller cost-saving measures.

Gone are the days when employers could accommodate employees’ religious practices by being flexible about who worked Saturdays and Sundays. Today, employers may have to offer additional prayer breaks in the middle of the workday, too ...

Want to avoid needless lawsuits from disgruntled applicants? Adopt some basic rules for handling the selection process, and pay special attention to the all-important job description and interview. As the following case shows, employers that follow some simple rules probably won’t lose a hiring discrimination lawsuit ...

Employers who end up losing discrimination lawsuits don’t just pay their own legal fees—they often pay the winning side’s fees, too. Always consider the ultimate cost before rejecting a settlement offer, or before pushing your own attorneys to appeal a case.

A recent federal appeals court decision shows how risky it is to ignore the interactive accommodations process spelled out in the ADA. In Talley v. Family Dollar Stores of Ohio (6th Cir.), the court held that the breakdown of the interactive process can, in and of itself, constitute a constructive discharge of an employee.

You’ve hired people of all races and religions, including a woman who wears a head scarf (hijab). But what do you say when that woman seeks a promotion to a more visible position? A few unwise words coupled with foot-dragging on the promotion and you’ll be wrapping your head around a religious discrimination lawsuit ...

Sometimes, it takes a strong argument to get supervisors to pay attention. Want them to make absolutely sure no one is being harassed or discriminated against? Just remind bosses that turning a blind eye to workplace problems may cause them terrible legal and financial problems of their own ...

Q. How long am I required to hold a position open for an employee who is on leave due to pregnancy? ...

Two former employees of the Hempstead Sanitation Department have filed a sexual harassment and race discrimination lawsuit claiming their supervisor, Frank Pepe, offered perks and gifts in exchange for sexual favors ...

Having trouble persuading managers and supervisors to report ADA accommodations requests? Tell them they may be held personally liable for disability discrimination under Ohio state law, a much harsher fate than they would meet under the federal ADA ...

New York state law prohibits discrimination based on actual or perceived sexual orientation. Employers can protect themselves from needless discrimination lawsuits by introducing a robust anti-discrimination policy and a clear and effective process for resolving complaints. Acting fast is the key ...

Best Buy recently agreed to settle an age discrimination lawsuit with the EEOC that accused the company of failing to hire a 68-year-old applicant because of his age. Under the terms of the agreement, Best Buy will pay $17,500 to Reinhold Schouweiler on whose behalf the EEOC filed suit in 2007 ...

It’s tough to keep up on all the latest changes in employment law. Busy HR professionals have to handle day-to-day problems and make sure new rules and regulations make their way into that routine. But it's vital to be up to date on new regulations relevant to your industry. Otherwise, you could face extensive, expensive and needless litigation ...

Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating against employees and applicants based on their religion. The EEOC recently published guidance to help employers deal with employees’ religion-based questions regarding time off, free speech, religious clothing and more ...

When Barack Obama takes office in January, get ready for the most sweeping employment-law changes the HR world has seen in years. Attorney Mike Fox walks you through the legislation likely to reshape HR, possibly even in the first 100 days of the Obama administration. Here’s how to prepare.

When an employee announces she’s pregnant, her employer had better be aware of the federal pregnancy discrimination law, state maternity leave laws and the employee’s right to FMLA and pregnancy disability leave.

When economic downturns lead to layoffs, companies can expect former employees to be bitter—and maybe even angry enough to look for reasons to sue. Before you announce layoffs, document the internal business evaluations that led to the terminations. That way, you will be ready if a lawsuit seemingly comes out of nowhere ...

New York City employers, beware: The sky may be the limit for discrimination damage awards. Federal law limits punitive damage awards in Title VII discrimination lawsuits to no more than $300,000 for large employers. New York state law doesn’t allow them at all. But the New York City Administrative Code discrimination provisions allow juries to award unlimited punitive damages ...

“The World’s Most Famous Arena” faces a discrimination lawsuit by a suite attendant, Laura Ward, who claims she was denied a prime assignment because of her gender ...

Do you have to treat transgendered job applicants differently? Which box, if any, do you check on the application—male or female? And what special laws must you know about?

The alphabet soup of federal HR laws—ADA, ADEA, FMLA and so forth—comes with a side order of compliance headaches. But some of those laws apply only to some organizations. Don't waste your time worrying about compliance if you don't have to. Here's the skinny on which laws you might be able to ignore—and which you absolutely must not ...

Memories fade and employees come and go. That’s why it’s crucial to retain certain records for future reference. Among the records you should keep forever are past organizational charts that show who had supervisory authority over other employees ...

In Michigan’s current tough economy, many laid off or fired workers are filing for bankruptcy. But that doesn’t mean former employees have given up on filing employment-related lawsuits. But these tight times have given employers an additional tool for finding out what they’re up against if they are sued ...

The Bullard-Plawecki Employee Right to Know Act gives employees the right to review their personnel records. The law requires employees to make written requests to look at the files before they seek legal redress. Keep a clear record of all requests ...

General Motors won summary judgment in a disability discrimination lawsuit after the company caught Christopher Peterson loading lumber into his car while he was on leave for back problems. Peterson had a long career with GM and had risen into the executive ranks ...

Former radio host Wendell “JD” Houston has filed a federal race discrimination lawsuit against CBS Radio in Manhattan. Houston claims he was hired to host WZMX-FM Hot 93.7 of Farmington, CT, because CBS wanted “an Uncle Tom, a black person who would stay behind the radio microphone and be heard but not seen.” ...

Just about everyone with an ounce of ambition wants to be promoted. But in most organizations, there’s only so much room for managers and supervisors. Still, failure to win a promotion is one of the most frequent triggers for discrimination lawsuits. That’s why HR should carefully track every employee’s performance and progress ...

Basing hiring decisions on the prejudices of your customer base is a sure way to land in court. Hiring managers can’t try to push off their bias onto a third party using excuses like “Our customers feel more comfortable dealing with [male or younger or white] employees.” That just won’t fly in court...

Conventional wisdom says it’s best to refuse to offer any opinion when a prospective employer asks for a reference on an applicant you know may be a poor choice. But sometimes, you may feel compelled to give your counterpart at the hiring organization an honest “heads up.” Before you do, consider that the applicant may sue you if he doesn’t get the job ...

Goshen-based Supreme Corporation, the nation’s leading truck body manufacturer, has agreed to pay $427,000 to settle a race discrimination lawsuit with the EEOC and seven former employees ...

As another year of double-digit increases in health care costs looms, employers are looking to save money wherever they can. Recently, many have tried to do so by implementing incentive programs designed to improve the health of their employees. But health incentive plans must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's privacy and nondiscrimination rules ...

You can use stable employment history as a legitimate selection criterion in hiring—if you do it right. The key is to allow employees to explain interruptions in their employment histories, ignoring those that could lead to a discrimination lawsuit ...

When conducting internal investigations into alleged wrongdoings, make sure you don’t treat employees who belong to a protected class (e.g., age, sex, race or disability) differently than others who may have misbehaved. As the following case shows, discharging one person based on an emotional reaction during an interview and keeping another who kept his cool under questioning may lead to a discrimination lawsuit ...

A lawsuit is the last thing you want after making a promotion decision. The best way to stay out of court is to insist on objective promotion criteria ...

The EEOC has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against Folks, the metro Atlanta and North Georgia restaurant chain, for allegedly refusing to employ a woman because of her religious attire ...

Here’s a powerful reminder to managers and supervisors that they must follow the letter and the spirit of discrimination laws: A recent California appeals court that heard a reverse discrimination case upheld an attorneys’ fee award that was 35 times higher than the dollar amount awarded to the employee who had been discriminated against ...

You can’t legislate good taste. But that shouldn’t stop you from having and enforcing dress and grooming rules. How you enforce those rules, however, can make the difference between needless litigation and a productive workplace. Don’t joke around about an employee’s dress or style. Instead, call the person into a meeting and discuss the problem in private ...

The California Supreme Court has ruled that unions and their supporters generally are free to urge customers shopping in private malls to boycott retailers at that mall. The ruling builds on earlier decisions that held that free-speech rights granted to California citizens in the state constitution are broader than those in the U.S. Constitution ...

According to a recent Northern District of Illinois federal trial court ruling, the EEOC doesn’t have to give employers more than a modicum of information when it files a federal discrimination lawsuit. Apparently, it’s enough to start a lawsuit with only general allegations that an employer “engaged in unlawful employment practices” ...

All employers with a unionized work force, take note: Just because someone has an age discrimination claim awaiting resolution under your collective bargaining agreement’s grievance procedures doesn’t mean the employee can’t prepare to file a lawsuit. In fact, the employee may have no choice but to go forward ...

In an interesting Supreme Court of Ohio case, the high court has ruled that a lawsuit by an employer against an employee who filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against it is not automatically retaliation. The court’s decision overturned a long-held view of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission ...

In the fall of 2007, the Ohio Civil Rights Commission’s proposed revisions to the rules governing pregnancy discrimination became a hot political topic. Due to some unusual political wrangling, the future of the proposed rule revision is very much in question ...

Charlene Morisseau, a litigation associate in DLA Piper’s New York City office, lost a $250 million race discrimination lawsuit against the law firm. Morisseau joined the firm in 2003 and was fired in less than a year ...

Businesses must stay abreast of an alphabet soup of federal laws—ADA, ADEA, FMLA and so forth—each with its own requirements. Further complicating matters, most states have their own laws that override the federal requirements. To comply, you first must know which laws apply to your business, based on the number of people you employ ...

Conventional wisdom has been that isolated or “stray” remarks alone by an employer do not prove discriminatory intent. Conventional wisdom may be wrong. A recent 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals case (Tomassi v. Insignia Financial Group, Inc., 478 F.3d 111, 2007) has clarified what it deemed a misconception of the true meaning of the term “stray remarks”  ...

There’s an easy way to avoid losing a discrimination lawsuit stemming from disciplining an employee who breaks company rules: Make absolutely certain you discipline fairly and evenhandedly, meting out punishment regardless of race, sex, nationality or other protected characteristics. Conduct regular audits of all disciplinary actions to make certain no one gets a free pass ...

Paulsboro High School has settled a gender discrimination lawsuit with its former principal, Lucia Pollino, who was suspended for six months with pay in April 2007 over allegations she let students be strip-searched ...

The EEOC last month issued an extensive fact sheet that explains how federal anti-discrimination laws apply to pre-hire tests. The nonbinding guidance focuses on the best—and legal—practices for cognitive tests, personality tests, medical exams, credit checks and criminal background tests ...

It may seem obvious, but it bears repeating: Tell supervisors and managers to avoid discussing religion if at all possible. And never, ever use blunt terms to make an employee choose between her religion and her job. Instead, focus any discussion of religious accommodations on the company’s legitimate needs ...

A recent federal trial court decision means employees can’t sue to challenge the constitutionality of a Michigan workers’ compensation ruling in both state and federal courts. That’s good news for employers that now won’t have to fight it out in both courts at the same time ...

With health insurance premiums outpacing inflation for what feels like the hundredth year in a row, employers are looking for innovative ways to cut costs. Many are taking a fresh look at wellness programs. So is the EEOC.

Federal employees who report alleged wrongdoing by the agencies they work for are entitled to special protections for their whistle-blowing actions. But they also have obligations—if they believe they have suffered retaliation, they must bring an administrative claim before the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board before filing a lawsuit in federal court ...

If, like many employers, you would rather avoid litigation by relying instead on arbitration to settle workplace disputes, you probably know that employees still may take their claims to the EEOC. That’s because the agency claims an interest in knowing whether employers are following the nation’s anti-discrimination laws. But it’s perfectly legal to force an employee into arbitration over those same claims ...

Difficult employees may be sensitive to perceived discrimination—especially if they also happen to be members of a protected class such as race, sex or national origin. They may think they have to work harder and appear smarter than others. If they lose a plum assignment, that may be enough to spur a discrimination lawsuit. That’s one reason you should carefully document how you handle easily bruised egos ...

Many discrimination lawsuits are the direct result of poor performance appraisal processes. A supervisor who is eager to maintain a cordial and productive workplace may hold back on legitimate criticism to avoid rocking the boat. This tactic can backfire badly once a new supervisor begins enforcing productivity rules and downgrades an employee previously rated “stellar.” If that employee is also a member of a protected class, look out ...

If your company’s business strategy includes promotion from within and constant innovation, unambitious employees may serve as poor role models. You may, in fact, want to ease them out in favor of new employees. Before you do, consider ways to light a fire under the feet of complacent employees. Here’s why this is crucial ...

SmartStyle Family Hair Salon has paid $20,000 plus additional relief to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit brought by the EEOC ...

While it may be unlawful to employ illegal immigrants under the Immigration Reform and Control Act, that doesn’t mean undocumented employees can’t sue for alleged employment discrimination based on other factors, such as pregnancy. Federal courts will still entertain discrimination lawsuits, ignoring illegal status ...

Washington Township in Gloucester County will pay $50,000 to a municipal worker to settle an age discrimination lawsuit that has been brewing for six years ...

Advances in genetic research have renewed attention on the workplace implications of genetic testing. Genetic research has many potential benefits. But there is growing concern that employers with access to genetic information may use it to discriminate ...

Does your organization have a policy requiring employees to retire (or step down to a lesser position) once they hit a certain “unbecoming” age? If so, a groundbreaking $27.5 million EEOC settlement shows that you’d better retire those policies … not the people ...

Has your organization lost a previous race discrimination lawsuit? Ouch! You can bet some of your employees filed away that information for future use. However, you can take heart in a court’s recent decision that having previously lost a discrimination suit doesn’t constitute “proof” that your organization continues to discriminate—unless the new case deals with exactly the same type of alleged discrimination ...

While being the only Hispanic, black or woman in a workplace may be uncomfortable, it doesn’t show that your employer practices discrimination. It takes more—such as statistical proof that the local labor pool includes other members of the employee’s protected class and that the organization employs a disproportionately lower number than should be on the payroll ...

Can your organization produce concrete evidence backing up every disciplinary decision it’s made? You need a tracking system that does just that. Here’s why ...

A noose on a table doesn’t mean the same thing to an all-white jury as it does to a 64-year-old black man, says retired city of Cocoa worker James Daniels. A six-member jury dismissed Daniels’ race discrimination lawsuit against the city, which centered on an incident involving a noose left on a break room table. “Most white folks don’t know what blacks go through,” Daniels said ...

The EEOC has slapped The Geo Group, a Boca Raton-based prison management company, with a religious discrimination lawsuit over the company’s 2005 ban on Muslim head scarves ...

B & H Foto and Electronics Corp., the enormous 9th Avenue photo mecca in Manhattan, will pay $4.3 million to settle a race discrimination lawsuit by the EEOC. The lawsuit alleged B & H paid Hispanic warehouse workers less than others ...

With the end of daylight-saving time and the beginning of the holiday season comes another annual ritual—open enrollment and next year’s health insurance premium notice. Try these three tips to keep health insurance costs down.

Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS), based in Plano, announced that it would offer early retirement to 12,000 eligible U.S. employees. The technology systems management and services company, which has approximately 136,000 employees in 64 countries, is making the offer in order to reduce costs ...

Employees who must stop working at a certain point in their pregnancies because a union agreement compels the leave are not entitled to unemployment compensation in Ohio. That’s true even if the pregnant employee could physically work and would have done so if it were an option ...

Employees who lose their jobs often look for sinister underlying reasons—such as discrimination. That’s why you should think about a strategy to minimize the chance a disgruntled employee will win a discrimination lawsuit. Here’s one way: Fill the vacant position with someone from the same protected class as the terminated employee ...

Applicants from other countries or who were educated abroad pose special problems for HR professionals. For example, can you be sure their education and training are as good as that of U.S.-educated applicants? One way to find out is to require a credentialing company to certify the applicant’s educational equivalence. But if you go that route, make sure you inform applicants about the requirement ...

As baby boomers age, more Americans say they expect to keep working longer than their parents did. That means more older job applicants—and more age-related lawsuits. Defend against this coming onslaught by taking extra care to document your disciplinary decisions to make sure age isn’t a factor ...

Q. We’re having tardiness and absenteeism issues with our employees. If we place an employee on probation for an excessive number of times tardy and days absent, can we require no absences at all during the probation period? —C.V., New Jersey ...

Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Chief Michael Berkow was dropped from the sex-discrimination lawsuit that has dogged him since he took office in Georgia last year ...

If possible, it makes sense to have the same person provide hiring and firing input. Here’s why: Logically, it makes no sense for someone to hire an applicant despite apparent protected characteristics (e.g., gender, race, religion) and then fire that person because of those same characteristics. Although it may not be enough to get a case dismissed, courts will consider it and it may persuade a jury in your favor ...

Believe it or not, federal courts don’t want to micromanage every aspect of your HR function. When faced with serious claims such as discrimination, courts ask employees to prove they suffered an “adverse employment action”—major damage such as a demotion, a cut in pay or discharge. They don’t tend to sweat the small stuff, such as lousy performance appraisals ...

Ohio is an at-will employment state, meaning that employees can be fired (and quit) for any reason or no reason as long as the employer doesn’t violate a specific anti-discrimination or other law. But employers and employees can change their relationships to a contractual one by agreement. If they do, then it becomes much harder to fire that employee without a rock-solid reason ...

Ohio has long recognized a common-law claim against wrongful discharge that violates public policy. For example, firing employees for filing a workers’ compensation claim would violate public policy. The same holds true for some claims that arguably would be covered by specific state and federal laws, such as the ADA and Ohio’s disability-discrimination law ...

The EEOC has issued new enforcement guidance concerning disparate treatment of workers with caregiving responsibilities—or “family-responsibility discrimination.” The guidelines are designed to help determine whether a particular employment decision is discriminatory. Family-responsibility discrimination is not a new type of discrimination, but rather an application of the existing discrimination laws to a situation that is drawing increasing attention ...

Unlike several other forms of discrimination—such as discrimination based on perceived disability—being mistaken for a member of a religious group and then being discriminated against based on that mistaken association isn’t illegal ...

In a term that will be dominated by cases concerning Guantanamo detainees and the power of the Executive branch, the U.S. Supreme Court will also hear an important case involving employment discrimination.

Employers are legally obligated to maintain a safe work environment. When employees commit violent acts against co-workers or customers, employers can be held responsible through negligent-hiring and supervision lawsuits. Each year, roughly 1,000 people are workplace homicide victims. And research shows that killings are five to seven times more likely to occur at workplaces where guns are allowed ...

When you fire or otherwise discipline an employee for breaking a work rule, can you show he knew about the rule? What about his co-workers and supervisors? Did they interpret the rule the same way? If not, you may have a hard time justifying disciplining one employee for breaking the rule ...

Does your organization have a blanket policy of refusing to hire any applicant with a criminal record? If so, make sure you can explain exactly why. A recent Pennsylvania court ruling shows that across-the-board “no ex-cons” policies can quickly run into legal trouble unless you can prove the restriction for a specific position was “job-related and consistent with business necessity” ...

Parents vs. nonparents. Gen Y vs. Gen X and the baby boomers. In some workplaces, there’s growing tension over benefits inequality. HR better listen if employees complain that they're getting worse benefits than their co-workers. One solution: Paid time off banks can help calm discontent.

Train managers and supervisors: No age-related comments! None. A simple sentence might not form the entire basis for an age discrimination lawsuit, but it can add fuel to an otherwise-smoldering case ...

Check patronizing attitudes—and comments—at the workplace door. Protective attitudes have no place at work and even a comment or two may spur on a sex-discrimination lawsuit. That’s why HR must tell managers and supervisors: Lay off the “I know what’s good for the delicate sex” comments. They are direct evidence of sex discrimination and a sure way to court ...

When it comes to sexual harassment under Ohio’s sex discrimination laws, a few days is all it takes to create a hostile work environment. Even if the harasser stops—instead turning critical and cold—the harassed employee may quit shortly after. Courts then will view the resignation as the effective equivalent of being fired in retaliation ...

When a former employee sues and you think the lawsuit is frivolous, resist the temptation to belittle or punish the employee by discussing the case. Small talk can mean a big payday for a former employee who finds out and files a defamation lawsuit. What’s more, you could be personally liable if a jury finds you acted vengefully or with ill will. The best advice: Don’t discuss pending lawsuits. If you say nothing, you can’t be accused of slander ...

Employment laws give older workers unique protections that younger workers lack. Specifically, the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Ohio’s Fair Employment Practices Act prohibit discrimination because of age against workers 40 and older. However, employers are getting a reprieve of sorts from a new EEOC regulation ...

Ask employers what their toughest challenge is, and they probably will mention discipline. It seems no one likes to play parent in the workplace. On the other hand, there’s no way to avoid it ...

A court has dismissed three Livingston teachers’ age discrimination lawsuit for lack of merit. The teachers filed suit under New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination after they were transferred to different schools late in their careers ...

Indiana’s unemployment compensation system, like that of many other states, provides temporary payments to employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. The program draws from a public policy that assumes “economic insecurity due to unemployment is … a serious menace to the health, morale, and welfare of the people of this state and to the maintenance of public order” and is “essential to public welfare.” Indiana administers its unemployment compensation program through the Indiana Department of Workforce Development (www.in.gov/dwd/) ...

Under the Indiana Civil Rights Act, it’s unlawful to subject people to differential treatment based on race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin or ancestry. The law prohibits discrimination in education, employment, access to public conveniences and accommodations, as well as real estate transactions ...

A federal jury has awarded a Tyson Foods supervisor $1 million, illustrating again that preventing racial discrimination is much cheaper than trying to litigate your way out of a preventable lawsuit. Take this opportunity to remind managers that what they say does matter.

North Carolina’s unemployment compensation fund, like that of many other states, provides temporary payments to employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. The program draws from a public policy that assumes “economic insecurity due to unemployment is a serious menace to the health, morals, and welfare of the people of this state” and the legislature is compelled to “lighten its burden [on] … the unemployed worker and his family.” North Carolina administers the law through its Employment Security Commission (ESC) (www.ncesc.com/) ...

The Retaliatory Employment Discrimination Act (REDA) is North Carolina’s super anti-discrimination law combining elements of several federal laws, including Title VII, the Fair Labor Standards Act, OSHA and USERRA. The Employment Discrimination Bureau in the state Department of Labor (www.nclabor.com/edb/edb.htm) enforces REDA ...

If you have a disciplinary policy that dictates punishment for different infractions, make sure you thoroughly investigate each incident. That way, you’ll be better prepared to show why one employee received a lesser punishment than another. That rationale is crucial when it comes to a discrimination lawsuit. You must be prepared to show how thorough your investigation was and why you did what you did ...

Dow Chemical Co., based in Midland, has announced it will adopt a cash-balance plan for new employees, making it the largest employer to do so since Congress passed legislation last year protecting new plans from age-discrimination lawsuits ...

Does your organization use phrases such as “fits our culture” or “understands our vision” as part of the hiring decision? If so, you may be setting yourself up for a discrimination lawsuit. Why? Because courts and juries sometimes view such subjective language as evidence that something else lies behind those phrases ...

Do you have an employee who doesn’t seem to be getting along with anyone? Has he complained about discrimination or some other supposed wrongdoing? If so, document the problems. If you don’t, you create legal risks ...

The success of your organization depends on hiring the right people. You spend a lot of time and effort determining the company’s needs and designing job descriptions that meet those needs. Don’t let a potential discrimination lawsuit ruin all that hard work. Instead, make the hiring process as transparent as possible ...

Employees seeking relief from on-the-job discrimination on the basis of their race, sex, age, national origin or religion can typically pursue their claims under federal law, Ohio law (Ohio Revised Code Section 4112.02) or both. In most cases, it doesn’t matter whether the employee sues under state or federal law—the court will apply the same cases and reasoning. The same is not true in pregnancy discrimination cases. That’s because the Ohio Civil Rights Commission interprets pregnancy discrimination quite differently than does its federal counterpart, the EEOC ...

It's well-established that employees who claim they have been subjected to a hostile work environment but don’t take advantage of their employer’s complaint process won’t get a chance to take their cases to court. Ever since the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the Faragher and Burlington Industries cases, employers can use their complaint processes as a defense against co-worker harassment. But what about under state laws, such as the New York State Human Rights Law? ...

Immigration reform was a hot topic in Washington during the first half of 2007, but Congress ultimately failed to pass legislation to tighten enforcement of decades-old laws that regulate which foreign-born workers are eligible to work in the United States. Fairly or not, look for employers and the HR functions to bear much of the enforcement responsibilities. Your best bet: Make sure you document employees’ eligibility to work by thoroughly completing and maintaining up-to-date I-9 forms ...

Employers are not required to provide a light-duty position indefinitely, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently ruled, overturning an Appellate Division decision. A Gloucester County corrections officer was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, which gave him double vision and prevented him from working in contact with inmates ...

With the war in Iraq dragging on, some employers’ patience is wearing thin when it comes to managing leaves of absence for National Guard troops and reservists ...

Michigan Seamless Tube will pay $500,000 to settle a class-action race-discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC for refusing to hire black former employees of Vision Metals ...

Most discrimination laws include a provision that makes it illegal to retaliate against employees who complain about discrimination ...

In a startling court order, a judge has required a company to tell its customers about a sexual-harassment verdict that cost it more than $2.3 million ...

Manch McLaughlin, a 54-year-old employee in the gas operations plant of National Grid in Glenmont, claimed he was passed over for promotions for 26 years while newer employees moved up the ranks around him ...

When employees sue under the employment discrimination laws of Ohio, they often allege disparate treatment and try to show their employer treated members of their protected class (e.g., age, race, sex) more severely than other employees. The key to a good defense lies in tracking each and every disciplinary action when it occurs ...

The Ohio Fair Employment Practices Act makes it illegal to subject employees to a racially hostile work environment. But not every hostile act does a lawsuit make. Much depends on management’s response to such hostility ...

A Plant City woman has filed suit against 5-D Tropical, a Tampa fish farmer and importer, for AIDS discrimination ...

Good news if you’ve ever wondered whether that arbitration clause you had your employees sign is valid. As long as certain conditions are met, employers can require employees to sign an arbitration agreement as a condition of employment ...

HR Law 101: Passage of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 marked the first boost to the federal minimum wage since 1997. In July 2007, the federal minimum wage increased from $5.15 to $5.85 per hour, with additional raises scheduled over the next two years: to $6.55 on July 24, 2008, and to $7.25 on July 24, 2009.

Employers could violate the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) even if they don’t intend to discriminate ...

Even in a post-Sept. 11, 2001, environment, employers know they can’t use national origin or religion as an excuse to discharge or refuse to hire employees.

Last December, the New Jersey Legislature amended the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) to protect people from adverse treatment due to “gender identity or expression” ...

Today, companies commonly emerge stronger and more competitive after filing for bankruptcy. An additional, unintended benefit may have a substantial impact on the HR office ...

Five former employees who say they were fired for being too old and costly have hit PPG Industries, Inc., the Pittsburgh-based paint, glass and chemical giant, with a class-action lawsuit ...

Most HR professionals recognize the legal risks of hiring outside applicants, but they often let down their guard when it comes to internal promotions ...

When an employee files an EEOC claim and the federal agency decides to dismiss it, that employee has up to 90 days to file a lawsuit on his or her own behalf. But it’s a different story with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) ...

If Senator Jim Ferlo (D-Allegheny) and 19 other state senators get their way, employers will have another anti-discrimination law to worry about. Ferlo has reintroduced legislation that would ban gay discrimination in employment, housing and credit ...

In August, President Bush signed the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which includes many benefits-related amendments to the Internal Revenue Code and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ...

If you’re about to fire an employee for misconduct, think about consulting an attorney before you commit the reason to writing. Sometimes no reason is better than one that could trigger a discrimination lawsuit ...

Q. I know that my company can be sued by my current and former employees for its employment actions. Do I, as an HR professional, have personal liability for my participation in employment decisions?

Employees who think a supervisor is treating them unfairly and suspect discrimination often will look for an escape. One tactic is to ask for a transfer to another department or location. Don’t think that you’re required to acquiesce ...

It’s almost never wise to comment on an employee’s religion or religious practices. But take heart in a new ruling that shows not all inappropriate comments will be deemed discrimination ...

Have a no-dating policy at your workplace? If the answer is “no,” it may be time to consider one. While some office romances may seem innocent enough, trouble can follow an ugly breakup between co-workers. That’s why it pays to have clear rules in place ...

After years of litigation and legislation, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has finally put the issue to rest: Employers are free to represent themselves or hire a non-attorney advisor to present their case when an employee wants an unemployment compensation hearing ...

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has dismissed a lawsuit filed by an employer against its employment practices liability insurance company because the employer didn’t tell the insurer about an EEOC complaint right away ...

It’s true: If you can’t say anything nice, sometimes it’s best not to say anything at all. It’s especially true if an employee has quit and filed a discrimination lawsuit ...

If yours is like most organizations, you probably make new employees serve a probationary period. It can provide insight into the new employee’s ability, attitude and how well he or she fits in. During probation, you can hold new employees to a higher standard than established employees ...

An inventory manager lost a discrimination lawsuit against the Atlanta Community Food Bank because he failed to meet the ADA’s disability standard ...

The Centerport Fire District will pay over $350,000 to settle an EEOC age-discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of 22 volunteer firefighters who were denied pension credit for service after age 65 ...

In April 2007, radio talk show host Don Imus made racially disparaging remarks about the Rutgers women’s basketball team on the “Imus in the Morning” show. The Imus experience serves as a high-profile example of how discriminatory comments can have serious consequences when made in an employment setting ...

Most federal discrimination laws require employees who think they have been wronged to file a complaint with the EEOC or their state’s equivalent agency before going to federal court. But that’s not the case when it comes to disability discrimination cases brought under the Ohio Revised Code anti-discrimination provisions ...

Employees who realize their jobs are in peril sometimes think pulling out the “lawsuit card” will save them. They’ll meet with an attorney, who will try to head you off with a threatened lawsuit. It sometimes succeeds because it casts the potential discharge in a sinister new light—as retaliation for threatening to sue. Here’s how to counter it and still carry through with your planned action ...

If your organization is like many, someone in HR ultimately decides whether to terminate an employee for poor performance based on supervisor recommendations and supporting documents, such as performance reviews. That can spell trouble if there’s more going on than meets the eye ...

You’ve told your first-line supervisors over and over again that crude language, insults and worse have no place in the workplace. But now an employee has filed a complaint, alleging her supervisor’s “insults” have created a hostile work environment ...

Michigan has one of the toughest weight discrimination laws in the country—a law that can trip up supervisors who innocently offer diet tips. It’s crucial to train management staff to recognize that discussion concerning an employee’s weight is off-limits ...

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in favor of a Grand Rapids police officer who was suspended as “unfit for duty” after she filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against the city of Grand Rapids. Now here’s the rest of the story ...

Train supervisors and managers to report religious and other discrimination, and be sure they know not to retaliate against anyone who does come forward. Ohio state law bars discrimination based on religion and other protected characteristics, and employees who can show they were discriminated against can collect punitive damages ...

UPS survived a race discrimination lawsuit only to be hit with a $2.1 million verdict for retaliation against a Detroit-area national account manager ...

Michigan Democrats are pushing several bills aimed at closing the earnings gap between women and men. House Bills 4625-4627 and Senate Bill 417 would broaden anti-discrimination laws to require equal pay for “work of comparable value”...

The ink on the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest employment-law decision was barely dry before the court voted to hear yet another important employment-discrimination case—this one concerning age discrimination.

You may think that your organization is immune from a sex discrimination lawsuit if you hire a female employee to replace a fired female. But such "free passes" don't automatically exist ... and your supervisors should know it ...

Employees need to prove they suffered some sort of "adverse job action" (firing, demotion, worse job conditions, etc.) to file a discrimination lawsuit. But variations in work schedules don't necessarily amount to an adverse action. That's true even if an employee's altered schedule results in fewer overtime hours ...

If your evaluation procedures are too complicated, employees may question whether they're being treated fairly. Mild suspicions can quickly grow into expensive discrimination lawsuits, as a new court ruling shows ...

If you plan to lay off employees, structure early-retirement offers carefully to avoid age-discrimination lawsuits. In particular, avoid making "take-it or leave-it" offers that force employees to choose between resigning with a severance package or being terminated ...

The federal job anti-discrimination law (Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act) applies to employers with 15 or more employees. So, if you have fewer than 15 workers, you may think you're automatically immune from such suits. Not so fast, says a new Supreme Court ruling ...

The U.S. Supreme Court handed employers a major victory this week by clarifying that workers who claim pay discrimination must file their complaints within 180 days of the alleged offense. But this ruling could, in the short run, lead to a spike in pay-bias claims.

The EEOC just revamped its guidance on racial and color discrimination in the workplace. These changes signal increased race-bias enforcement, plus more EEOC attention to "subtle" discrimination ...

If you’ve never heard of “family-responsibility discrimination,” or FRD, you soon will. The EEOC has issued new guidance to help employers understand how federal anti-bias laws apply to workers with caregiving duties.  The result: Expect more awareness (and lawsuits) from employees , plus more enforcement from the EEOC and state anti-bias agencies.

If you have a good business reason, you can require employees to speak English on the job. But don't go overboard. As a New York City hotel just found out, requiring English be spoken at all times, even in the employee breakroom, can spark an EEOC national-origin claim ...

DuPont engineer Godwin Igwe filed a discrimination lawsuit, claiming the company denied him bonuses and promotions because of his national origin. But DuPont successfully defended the suit because its records showed that Igwe said he understood and accepted his demotion because of funding cuts in his department ...

The EEOC recently sent a powerful signal about its enforcement priorities when it published newly revised employer guidance on workplace race and color discrimination. The message: Employee complaints of race bias or color bias will be pushed to the top of the EEOC's inbox ...

If it's been awhile since the last overhaul of your employee handbook, you may be courting danger. Establish a regular revision schedule for your handbook, updating it once a year or whenever significant statutory changes occur ...

Lawmakers in Massachusetts are debating legislation that would make it the second state (after Michigan) to prohibit job discrimination based on a person’s height or weight. Passage of the bill in Massachusetts could spark interest in such laws in other states.

Like most organizations, your organization probably needs to squeeze more productivity out of fewer employees these days. That may mean requiring some hourly employees to work overtime, even if they don't want to. But, if handled incorrectly, mandatory overtime can smother morale, create management-employee tensions and spark legal disputes ... 

Forcing your well-meaning health-improvement plan could backfire. Discrimination and privacy issues could derail your goal. Immunize your program against potential legal ills using these five tips ...

When it's time to restructure your workplace, beware the potential legal dangers of transferring employees to jobs that have no growth potential. That could be viewed as an adverse action that triggers a discrimination lawsuit ...

Workplace humor is fine until it drifts into the realm of gags about employees' gender, race or religion. Even age-based jokes can trigger lawsuits. Although few employees will win age-discrimination lawsuits based on a joke or two, such juvenile behavior can take an otherwise marginal case and give it legal legs ...

If you're a religious organization, don't be intimidated by employees invoking anti-discrimination laws as a way to protest your legitimate religious mission. When it comes to how you manage religious staff, government must keep its hands off ...

Nothing triggers age discrimination lawsuits like a layoff. After all, saving money is a primary consideration in most decisions to downsize. And because long-term employees are often paid more than newer employees, organizations that focus on money often end up with layoff lists heavy with post-40-year-olds. That's a recipe for an Age Discrimination in Employment Act lawsuit ...

The EEOC filed a religious discrimination lawsuit last month against the Aldi supermarket chain after the two parties failed to reach a settlement ...

When hiring, you probably use the job description to establish the minimum requirements for the position. But what if no one in the applicant pool meets those minimum requirements? ...

When employees sue your organization, it can be tempting for supervisors to keep a closer eye on those litigious employees to make sure they’re “playing by the rules.” But be careful: If you suddenly start enforcing your company’s existing rules or turn into Big Brother, you could end up facing a second lawsuit, for retaliation ...

Not all New Jersey employers have to worry about complying with state anti-discrimination laws. Specifically, federal employers in the state aren’t subject to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. Reason? The federal anti-bias laws (Title VII and the Rehabilitation Act) are the sole remedies for federal employees ...

A mother who alleged she was ordered to stop breast-feeding her infant at the Tiffany’s in the Short Hills Mall, Essex County recently lost her discrimination lawsuit. But the case was a near miss ...

Employers who use light-duty programs to cut workers’ compensation costs often make one big legal mistake: They apply their policies haphazardly, allowing some employees to take light-duty jobs, but not others. That inconsistency is the fastest way to trigger discrimination lawsuits ...

In the HR world, your actions sometimes fall into the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” category. This is one of those cases ...

A New York jury has awarded the former editor-in-chief of The Source, a hip-hop magazine, $15.5 million in damages from her sex discrimination lawsuit ...

If you don’t ensure that clearly qualified, post age-40 employees aren’t seriously considered for promotions, you could be risking an expensive lawsuit under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act ...

After last year’s blockbuster U.S. Supreme Court decision that made it easier for employees to sue for workplace retaliation (Burlington Northern v. White), courts have been trying to figure out how to apply that ruling in real-life situations ...

Here’s another good reason to aggressively contest unemployment compensation claims when you have strong evidence that the company fired the employee for a good cause (such as lying or stealing): You can use an unemployment compensation ruling to prove, in a later discrimination lawsuit, that you fired an employee for a valid, nondiscriminatory reason ...

Sometimes, all the candidates for a promotion are equally qualified, making the selection difficult. It becomes a legally prickly issue when one or more of the candidates is in a protected category (race, age, gender, etc.). But you don’t have to resort to drawing straws ...

A former professor recently filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against Georgia College & State University, claiming he was denied tenure because of his age, gender and disability ...

A white administrator at Westside High School recently filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the Richmond County school superintendent, claiming she was denied a job as adult education director because of her race ...

To support sex discrimination lawsuits, employees must do more than claim their supervisor had a “sexist attitude.” Without more proof of job-related impact, complaints about supervisors with attitude aren’t enough direct evidence ...

Dogged for over a decade by lawsuits alleging racial and sexual discrimination, the city of Fort Lauderdale has been working to change that atmosphere. But two recent instances of hostile employee pranks marked a major setback for the city’s effort ...

When it comes to discrimination laws, you’d think the federal government would know the rules. Yet a jury recently ordered the U.S. Homeland Security Department to pay $2.5 million to a former employee in a bias lawsuit ...

Tallahassee Community College recently settled a discrimination lawsuit with the U.S. Justice Department, agreeing to pay more than $34,000 in back pay and interest to a job applicant ...

You have the right to prohibit employees from engaging in other gainful employment while at work. But can you (or should you) ban off-the-clock moonlighting? And when should you discipline employees for moonlighting? ...

Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 has become an increasingly common route for African-Americans to bring to federal court a variety of discrimination claims not covered by Title VII. But claims of national-origin discrimination aren’t allowed under Section 1981...

Coca-Cola has received the court’s blessing for its diversity efforts in the wake of a landmark 1999 discrimination lawsuit that cost the company $192.5 million ...

DeKalb County faces a discrimination lawsuit by employees who allege that the county’s parks management, attempting to create a ”darker administration” to better reflect county demographics, discriminated against white employees ...

If you punished two employees for the same misdeed but only one asked you to reverse the decision, consider the legal ramifications first. If you grant “amnesty” to one employee but not the other, you could trigger a discrimination lawsuit ...

If Texas employers need any more reasons to avoid making hiring, firing, compensation or work condition decisions based on a person’s age, here’s a good one: Texas law says employees who prove their employers fired them due to their age are able to collect damages for mental anguish ...

Good news for New York employers: A new federal court decision says that you don’t have to comply with stricter anti-discrimination laws in an employee’s home state if the person works in New York ...

Even the stereotypical hot-tempered chef is not immune to labor-law complaints, as Daniel Boulud, owner of the Upper East Side’s four-star restaurant, Daniel, recently learned ...

Asking prospective employees whether they’re married or have children is not illegal in Pennsylvania, but it’s a very bad idea ...

A female attorney specializing in employment and labor law has filed a sexual discrimination lawsuit against a Pittsburgh law firm, claiming the environment was hostile to women ...

Just when you thought you knew every reason to keep your workplace harassment-free, here’s yet another one: workers’ compensation ...

You may remember reading about the Pittsburgh TV station employee who allegedly swiped e-mail and documents left on employees’ desks as evidence for a discrimination lawsuit ...

Before allowing employees to work from home or another remote location, consider the risk of making your organization liable under anti-discrimination laws in the state or city where that telecommuter lives ...

A former chief medical officer for Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon Inc. has filed a retaliation and discrimination lawsuit, claiming the company fired him for voicing product safety concerns and pushing for product recalls ...

When conducting a reduction in force (RIF), it’s vital to handle severance offers carefully. Make sure you don’t needlessly give discharged employees the idea that they can file an age-discrimination lawsuit ...

It pays to make every effort to publicize job openings to your current staff and make clear how employees should apply. If you don’t, you face potential discrimination claims ...

Allison Walzer, former editor of the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, has added a retaliation claim to a pending discrimination lawsuit against the newspaper, where she worked for 24 years ...

Although a 63-year-old quality control inspector won his age-discrimination lawsuit, a jury awarded him only $1 in damages ...

It’s a dilemma faced by many HR professionals: Discipline an employee who has engaged in a “protected activity” (like union organizing), and you risk a retaliation lawsuit ...

Why does “testing” bring about that sledgehammer-in-the-stomach feeling? Maybe because, as students, we never knew quite what to expect. Now, the same is true when it comes to a recent trend in employment-law cases: applicants and employees making phone calls to secretly test whether your organization is discriminating ...

Many employers have run afoul of federal discrimination law by requiring all employees to speak only English at all times. The EEOC has said employers can only set such “English-only” rules if they can show a clear business need ...

Do you worry you may be courting a discrimination lawsuit when you turn away an applicant or toss an unsolicited résumé in the trash? Rest assured that turning away applicants when you don’t have an opening isn’t likely to get you in trouble ...

Thirty states and the District of Columbia have established “lifestyle discrimination” laws that prohibit employers from discriminating against employees or applicants based on the person’s off-duty use of tobacco or participation in other legal though controversial activities ...

HR Law 101: Thirteen states have legalized the use of medical marijuana: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.Whether employers in those states must accommodate legal medical marijuana use depends on how courts interpret state law.

HR Law 101: Since passage of the 1991 Civil Rights Act, jury trials now are allowed when the plaintiff alleges intentional discrimination and seeks compensatory or punitive damages. However, a jury can’t be told of the statutory limits on the amount of compensatory and punitive damages it can award ...

HR Law 101: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination against workers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. An array of federal and state laws further refine the definition of discrimination ...

HR Law 101: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) of 1978 prohibits discrimination on the basis of "pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions." Employers can't deny a woman a job or a promotion merely because she's pregnant or has had an abortion ...

HR Law 101: Sex discrimination and sexual harassment are illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The law requires that employers treat male and female workers equally in all terms and conditions of employment ...

HR Law 101: In recent years, employer attempts to regulate what employees may do on their own time have become contentious. Many employers fear that their employees’ off-duty actions, including moonlighting, may reflect badly on them, lower productivity or, even worse, create liability ...

HR Law 101: Workplace dress codes touch on a variety of issues, including workplace safety, freedom of speech, personal hygiene, customer relations, religious freedom, the minimum wage and racial and gender stereotypes. Employers have a number of legitimate reasons for imposing a dress code, but court rulings have limited their options...

HR Law 101: Employee handbooks are extremely valuable business tools. But if you're not careful, your handbook could land you in court. In particular, employees are increasingly suing for wrongful discharge, pointing to a handbook they claim guaranteed them employment indefinitely ...

Q. Our company manual doesn't address compensatory time off, but we have offered certain exempt managers an hour of comp time for every hour of overtime worked. Do we have to pay them for accrued comp time when we terminate them? In the past, we've paid comp time to some and not to others. Can we negotiate our own terms with each employee? —E.B., Oregon

Q. Is it legal to terminate an employee because he makes a high salary? —J.L., Arizona

Q. How serious is it if written job descriptions aren't in place for employees? Is it safe to draft them even after a termination that could result in a lawsuit? —B.B., New York

Q. You recently said that I-9 forms can now be stored electronically. To save on office space and filing time, our department is considering scanning and electronically filing all personnel files and documents. Is this OK? —S.S., California

Q. We had a full-time RN request time off to be with her husband who experienced a heart attack. We’re a small medical center with 25 employees. Administration was very upset and wouldn’t let her take any paid time off and wouldn’t guarantee her position. She had lots of sick time and vacation time in the bank. Can the company do that? —D.B., Pennsylvania

Q. Our church day care center hired a woman who, we later found out, was living with a married man. Our director had “moral issues” with this situation and terminated her. I think the termination was illegal. Was it? —L.T., Florida

Here's another point to get the attention of your managers and supervisors when they complain about yet another discrimination training session. If they don't pay attention, it's not just the company that may suffer. They could be sued personally, too ...

It seems safe to conclude that Georgia employers won't have to worry anytime soon about a state ban on sexual-orientation discrimination in the workplace ...

A federal judge in the Northern District of Texas recently dismissed a Title VII discrimination lawsuit brought by a lesbian nurse who claimed that she was fired because of her sexuality and appearance ...

As an employer, you can't always wait on a background check before offering a job, so you have to rely on applicants' oral and written statements to make the offer. But when the background check comes back to reveal that the person lied, you have the absolute right to terminate that individual for dishonesty ...

If you've ever wondered how much it costs an employer to defend a discrimination lawsuit, a Pennsylvania case may provide the answer ...

While many employees view a transfer to a different location as a positive career move, others don't see it that way. Some employees may assume discrimination in what your organization thinks of as normal career development ...

Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group was cited twice last month: First by Working Mother magazine as one of the top 100 places for women to work, and then by the EEOC as a place where pregnancy discrimination is rife ...

Don't think that leaving the final firing decision to someone in company headquarters will shield your organization from a discrimination lawsuit. Even if the ultimate decision-maker doesn't know the race, sex or age of the employee in question, the fired employee can still file a discrimination claim if he or she can point to lower-level bias that tainted the decision ...

When it comes to employment-law cases, if you think your organization will settle the case (rather than go to trial), do it as early in the discussions as possible. It could end up saving you big bucks ...

Expect this summer's blockbuster U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Burlington Northern v. White, to swell the number of retaliation complaints and legal claims ...

Q. We're a small business (just eight employees) and haven't laid anyone off. But business is slow and we need to restructure. We have an employee who has worked here part time (12 hours per week) for 25 years. She is 65 years old. We have one other part-timer (10 hours per week) who has worked here just one year. We'd like to lay off both part-time employees and keep the full-time employees. Can we do that? —P.U., Georgia

When new management or HR leaders arrive at a company, they may realize that the old guard failed to hold employees to high productivity goals. As a result, they may shift gears and set tougher standards. Employees accustomed to the status quo and the good evaluations may be taken by surprise and suspect discrimination ...

More organizations are establishing mandatory arbitration agreements that require employees to arbitrate employment disputes rather than go to court. But if you're considering such agreements, make sure they contain language that covers events that occurred before you put the arbitration policy in place ...

Your company has employment practices liability insurance (EPLI), so it's covered in case of any employee lawsuit, right? Not so fast. The fine print in an EPLI policy can turn an apparently strong lawsuit shield into a worthless piece of paper ...

The federal job anti-discrimination law (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act) prohibits two types of discrimination: disparate treatment and disparate impact. Because automated tests, such as résumé-screening programs, are blind to applicants' race, religion, gender and national origin, they likely can't create a disparate-treatment case. However, such programs can still have a disparate impact on minorities ...

When you need to terminate an employee, it makes sense for the same manager who hired the employee to also pull the trigger on the firing. That bit of legal strategy—the so-called "same actor defense"—could help you defend a discrimination lawsuit down the road ...

Even though some provisions of the new landmark pension law don't take effect for 16 months, HR professionals need to start educating themselves immediately. The changes amount to the most sweeping reforms of pension law in more than 30 years ...

The EEOC has provided more legal cover for employers that actively recruit older applicants and offer better perks to their older employees. New proposed EEOC regulations, which reflect a 2004 Supreme Court decision, say you won't violate federal age-discrimination law if you favor older employees over younger ones ...

HR Law 101: If it’s been awhile since you last overhauled your employee handbook, you may be courting disaster. You should establish a regular revision schedule and update your handbook once a year or whenever significant statutory or other changes occur ...

Two black employees working in the Nashville plant of Michigan-based USF Holland recently won $350,000 each in a race-discrimination lawsuit ...

A hospital secretary who suffered chronic arm pain after puncturing her thumb with a contaminated pin recently lost her disability-discrimination lawsuit ...

Would your hiring managers react negatively to male employees or applicants just because they took FMLA leave to care for a newborn or a sick family member? ...

Courts view interns the same as employees: as “agents” of your organization. So should you. If you use interns or plan to, advise supervisors to manage them as closely as employees, if not more so. And apply your workplace policies to them ...

You may believe that interns, volunteers or other unpaid helpers aren’t official “employees” so they can’t sue for discrimination. You’d be wrong ...

If your organization hits a busy time and needs employees to work long hours, don’t hesitate to require everyone to pitch in. Federal rules allow you to require nonexempt employees to work overtime, so long as you pay them time-and-a-half for hours worked above 40 in a week ...

When employees file age-discrimination lawsuits, their lawyers may try to bolster the case by seeking out co-workers who have the same complaint ...

Image is everything, as the saying goes. But be extra careful that your pursuit of a certain work-force image doesn’t result in the weeding out of legally protected employees (females, minorities, older workers, etc.) ...

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide on an important race-discrimination employment issue: whether a fired employee can win a race-discrimination lawsuit when the manager who pulled the trigger on the termination didn’t know the employee’s race ...

Q. If we’re sued for age discrimination, is the potential award limited to lost wages and benefits? Or can a court also award damages like pain and suffering? —D.B., Nebraska

Employers that want to trim their work force often sweeten the exit with severance payments. In exchange, employees sign away rights to lawsuits they may otherwise have contemplated. But what about employees who already have pending employment discrimination lawsuits or EEOC or state agency complaints? ...

Largo is struggling to live up to its “City of Progress” moniker after the city commission voted in February to fire City Manager Steve Stanton for planning a sex-change operation ...

Q. How long do we have to keep applications and résumés? — L.P., Kansas

Wakefern Food Corp., owner of local ShopRite food markets, recently was hit with two employee discrimination lawsuits ...

A former waiter at restaurant Jean Georges, located in the Trump Towers, has filed a federal lawsuit claiming the chef de cuisine and other employees harassed him after learning he was gay ...

In reversing a lower court’s decision, the New York Supreme Court recently agreed to dismiss a race- and age-discrimination lawsuit filed against New York Westchester Square Medical Center (NYWSMC) ...

The New York Human Rights Division is facing age and race-discrimination lawsuits by two former employees who say they were tossed out for being old and white ...

Five former Nextel employees who received settlements from a class-action discrimination lawsuit have filed suit against Nextel and the law firm that brokered the settlement ...

Employers are always looking for ways to cut health care costs … and smoking and overweight employees may seem like ripe targets for change ...

If you hire emotionally disabled employees, be sure to integrate them into your regular staff meetings and events. Avoid treating them as a separate (even if equal) component of your work force ...

HR Law 101: Don’t overlook state laws, which may provide more protection for independent contractors. While the IRS is largely concerned with the issue of who collects and who pays taxes on earnings, states have different interests to protect. Thus, some states may prefer for some contractors to be considered employees under the IRS rule.

HR Law 101: Make sure your job advertisements are based on accurate, up-to-date job descriptions and comply with anti-discrimination laws. Don’t use phrases like “perfect for college students” or “ideal for working mothers” …

HR Law 101: Many organizations use pre-employment tests to screen applicants. But be aware of the risks involved. Unless you can demonstrate that a test measures job-related qualities and fulfills a business necessity, you could be exposing your organization to charges of discrimination ...

Texas unemployment compensation law, like that of many other states, provides temporary payments to employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. The law is administered by the Texas Workforce Commission ...

Texas employers who abide by the employment discrimination provisions of the federal Civil Rights Act (Title VII) are likely to be safe under the state law, too. That’s because the Texas Labor Code provisions on discrimination are identical to the requirements under Title VII ...

Several Texas cities and towns have made it illegal to discriminate in employment (hiring, firing, pay, promotions, etc.) on the basis of an employee or applicant’s sexual orientation ...

Florida’s unemployment compensation law, like that of many other states, provides temporary payments to employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. The law is complex and in some cases holds employers liable for unemployment insurance payments even when former employees weren’t fired but quit their jobs ...

The Florida Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination or segregation in employment and access to places of public accommodation because of race, color, age, national origin, sex, handicap, familial status or religion ...

Georgia’s unemployment compensation law, like that of many other states, provides temporary payments to employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. The Georgia Employment Security Law is complex and in some cases holds employers liable for unemployment insurance (UI) payments even when former employees weren’t fired but quit their jobs ...

Pennsylvania’s unemployment compensation law, like that of many other states, provides temporary payments to employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. The law is administered through the Pennsylvania Department of Labor ...

Employers of four or more people must comply with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA). The law is administered by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC), which also receives the initial federal discrimination charges made under Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act ...

New Jersey’s unemployment compensation law, like that of many other states, provides temporary payments to employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. The law is complex and in some cases holds employers liable for unemployment insurance (UI) payments even when former employees weren’t fired but quit their jobs ...

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination makes it unlawful to subject people to differential treatment based on race, creed, color, national origin, nationality, ancestry, age, sex (including pregnancy), marital status, domestic partnership status, affectional or sexual orientation, atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait, genetic information, liability for military service, mental or physical disability, perceived disability, AIDS and HIV status ...

New York’s unemployment compensation law, like that of many other states, provides temporary payments to employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. The law is complex and in some cases holds an employer liable for unemployment insurance (UI) payments even when a former employee wasn’t fired but quit ...

New York employers must contend with an assortment of leave laws in addition to those required by the federal FMLA and the ADA’s reasonable accommodations requirements for employees with disabilities ...

California’s unemployment compensation system, like that of many other states, provides temporary payments to employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. The law is complex and in some cases holds an employer liable for unemployment insurance (UI) payments even when a former employee wasn’t fired, but quit ...

Under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), it’s unlawful to subject people to differential treatment based on race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, sex, age or sexual orientation ...

Ohio’s unemployment compensation system, like that of many other states, provides temporary payments to employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. The law is complex and in some cases holds an employer liable for unemployment insurance (UI) payments even when a former employee wasn’t fired but quit ...

The Illinois Unemployment Insurance Act, like that of many other states, provides temporary payments to employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. The law is complex and, in some cases, holds an employer liable for unemployment insurance (UI) payments even when a former employee wasn’t fired but quit ...

Under the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA), it’s illegal to subject people to differential treatment based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status (with regard to employment), age (40 and over), marital status, familial status (with regard to housing), arrest record, physical or mental disability, military status, sexual orientation or unfavorable discharge from military service ...

The Michigan Employment Security Act governs the state’s unemployment compensation program. As in many other states, the law provides temporary payments to employees who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. The law is complex and in some cases holds an employer liable for unemployment insurance (UI) payments even when a former employee wasn’t fired but quit ...

When facing a discrimination claim filed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, it makes sense for employers to try to settle as early as possible, before the agency holds hearings and files an opinion ...

Question: I work in an office where I am in the center of everything, so I can hear and see everything that goes on.  One of my co-workers pretends to work all day but spends most of the time on the phone, and it's all personal calls. I believe that my boss is clueless as to what's going on.

I'm wondering if I need to let my boss know what's going on or continue to do my work and not pay any attention. It's very distracting and discouraging because I do more work than my co-worker and they get paid
a whole lot more than I do.  -- Discouraged in Alabama

Be very leery about setting rules that ban one gender or another from certain positions. Such a policy may be legal if you can prove that gender is a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) for a position. But courts will likely be skeptical if the job can be done by both sexes without violating any laws or with an easy accommodation.

Just because an older employee is preparing to retire, it doesn't give your organization the right to push him out the door.