Boorish behavior and vulgar words are on the rise in U.S. workplaces. In fact, 38% of women say they’ve heard inappropriate sexual innuendoes and taunts in the workplace—up from 22% the year before. Such behavior isn’t just a legal risk; it can crush morale, increase turnover and hurt employee health. Advice: Adopt a civility policy or code of conduct separate from your harassment policy.

Q. We have an employee who claims to be a witch. She contends that witchcraft is her religion and has asked for certain holidays off. Are we required to accommodate this employee’s request?

Sometimes, employers have to fire employees—even those who have recently filed successful discrimination complaints. Don’t be afraid to do so. You can beat a bogus retaliation claim by making sure you have good, solid documentation to substantiate the firing.

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.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects workers age 40 or older from discrimination based on age. To win an ADEA lawsuit, an employee has to show that a younger employee replaced her. However, that younger employee must be at least six years younger unless there is direct evidence of age discrimination.

Businesses and nonprofits that receive taxpayer money and contract with government agencies to provide services may be prohibited from using religious criteria in hiring and firing. And hiring on the basis of someone’s religious beliefs or affiliation may be proof that an employer has crossed the line.

When it comes to termination, courts cut employers lots of slack—if employers can show they sincerely believed they were firing an employee for good reasons. You can show that good faith by having HR review all disciplinary actions, especially double-checking on termination decisions before they are finalized.

Employees who complain about discrimination are protected from retaliation—but not from every consequence of their complaint. Take, for example, what often naturally occurs when someone files a harassment complaint that turns out to be unfounded or unworthy of drastic action like firing the alleged harasser. There’s bound to be backlash from other employees ...

Some work environments are more at risk than others for sexual harassment to develop and fester. And those employers have a special obligation to look for harassment—and stop it. For example, if a few women now hold jobs traditionally performed by men, make sure the women aren’t being subjected to sexually demeaning or offensive conduct.

Before taking command of the U.S. Army’s VII Corps in West Germany in 1978, Lt. Gen. Julius Becton needed to brush up on his German. Becton’s college studies in German, though, had focused on reading and writing, so now he put in three weeks of training to work up a little fluency. His real lesson came later ...

Ask senior executives to decode leadership for you and you’ll probably get a long, useless list of qualities. For this reason, three students of management set about grouping together what happens when leadership happens:

Family responsibility discrimination (FRD)—discrimination against employees because of their family caregiving duties—has become a hotbed for litigation against employers, and every indication is that this trend will continue. So it’s critical for employers to recognize the potential for liability and take necessary steps to avoid being the next defendant.

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.

Brett Favre is successfully doing what you’ll likely have to do at least once in your career—stepping in to lead a team that for whatever reason has doubts about whether you’re the right leader. In spite of all the drama, Favre is winning the Vikings over. How is he doing it? Here are a few things he’s doing that I think apply to leaders in all fields:

Here’s advice that bears repeating to everyone involved in hiring and firing: Never opine that you’d prefer someone of the opposite sex to do a job. Word will get around … and you’re sure to get sued.

According to the EEOC, White Way Cleaners discriminated against a female worker when it first moved her from the cleaning line to the front counter during her first pregnancy and then again when it terminated her after learning she was pregnant again.

Employees sometimes think taking FMLA leave—or even just asking for the time off—protects them from being disciplined or discharged. Not so. Employers are free to discipline or discharge employees if they can show they would have taken the same action even if the employee never asked for or received FMLA leave.

Lawyers are always looking for new and different reasons to sue employers on behalf of employees and applicants. That’s bad news for employers, because additional charges mean greater legal costs, more lost time and potentially higher jury awards. Fortunately, courts are growing impatient with this practice ...

Employers that end up violating the FMLA—unintentionally or not—don’t face an additional problem under North Carolina law. The supposed problem: At-will employees in North Carolina can sue their employers if they’re terminated and the discharge violates public policy. But failing to follow the intricacies of federal laws and regulations doesn’t violate public policy.

Question:  “Our office manager constantly takes aim at minorities and older employees. After we sent an anonymous letter to the human resources manager about this woman’s prejudiced behavior, he posted a notice saying only signed complaints will be investigated. If we sign our names, we know the manager will retaliate.  She has a history of firing people who protest her heavy-handed tactics, and her boss wholeheartedly supports her. If human resources won’t consider our complaint, what can we do?” — No Way Out

There’s one silver lining to the rapid growth of employment lawsuits: Courts are losing patience with the rising number of applicants, employees and former employees who file suits that have no basis in reality. Increasingly, courts are approving sanctions against such employees and their attorneys.

Congress is considering emergency legislation that would guarantee five paid sick days for workers directed to stay home by their employer for a contagious illness, such as the H1N1 flu virus. Although passage is far from certain, the Emergency Influenza Containment Act is a bill worth monitoring.

It happens to every manager: You sit down to prepare a staff member's review and realize you can remember only what the person has done the past few weeks. Supervisors should never rely solely on memory to evaluate employee performance. The most useful, easy-to-implement way is to create and maintain a log for each person. Here's how.

A progressive discipline system is the best way to correct employee performance problems. It’s also the best way to protect against wrongful termination lawsuits. It allows you to ensure that any employee fired because of inferior performance was treated fairly and in accordance with your company’s policies. Here’s a five-step model for progressive discipline:

Times are changing in the world of workplace immigration law. Employers now have to complete a new version of the I-9 Form. The feds just launched “a bold new audit initiative” to punish employers who hire illegals. And starting Sept. 8, thousands of federal contractors are required to use the electronic E-Verify system. Result: a greater risk for immigration-related trouble than ever before ...

Q. I recently discovered that an employee who handles my company’s accounts receivable has filed for bankruptcy. Can I discharge this employee?

Most HR professionals like to think their workplaces are free from slurs and other behavior that smacks of racial hostility. If only that were always true! Sadly, bigotry sometimes rears its ugly head. But the good news is that an isolated comment probably isn’t enough to make you liable. That is, unless the comment is made by a supervisor.

It often makes sense to give a fresh start to a poorly performing employee who has been complaining about discrimination. Place her in another position with a new supervisor, new co-workers and a clean disciplinary record. Then if her workplace problems persist, you can terminate her without worrying about retaliation claims.

What if a management consultant suggests that you find “young, energetic” people to take over? A court ruling last week sends a clear warning: Be careful who you listen to for advice … and where you write it down.

When an employee is discharged shortly after returning from FMLA leave, she may charge retaliation. The timing alone may be enough to send the case to trial. If an employer has a solid reason for the firing, however, it can win.

Supervisors who want to hand-select a particular employee for a job may be tempted to play fast and loose with the company promotion process. Watch out!

Many sexual harassment complaints turn out to be much ado about very little. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can close the case and forget about the whole thing. That can be especially dangerous if the person about whom the complaint was made is a supervisor who still has authority over the employee who complained. Here’s how to handle the aftermath of a closed harassment complaint:

Courts seldom second-guess firing decisions if employers can articulate solid reasons for the discharge—and take the time to document their decision-making processes. That’s because employees who want to challenge their employer’s termination decisions have to raise suspicions that the employer’s reason was not credible and that it wasn’t really a motivating factor in the decision.

If you have an employee who seems constantly exhausted, take note: He or she may suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). And under the newly revised Americans with Disabilities Act, that person could be deemed “disabled” and entitled to reasonable work accommodations.

Progressive discipline is a system in which penalties increase upon repeat occurrences. But don’t pick and choose which employees you run through progressive discipline. It’s critical to apply those procedures to all employees or none, as this new case shows ...

We certainly don’t want to be the subject of gossip, and we know gossip isn’t kind, so why does it occur? Because people need their gossip fix. We’re preprogrammed for it: It comes standard in all human beings. But does that make gossiping OK?

When an employee threatens litigation, take your time building the case against him. Make sure you base your decision on solid facts. Double-check to see that there’s no way the employee can claim you singled him out for unfair or inequitable treatment. Then rest easy, knowing that if you’re sued, you can counter the allegations with facts and get the case dismissed quickly.

When the person who hires someone is the same one who conducts the firing, courts typically discount the idea that discrimination was involved. After all, why would someone who hired an applicant discriminate later because of that person’s age, race or sex? But be aware that the defense doesn’t always work if there is clear discrimination evidence.

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.

The EEOC has filed charges against Crom Corp. and Crom Equipment Rentals, two Gainesville construction companies, for firing a black worker after he complained of racial harassment following an alleged series of disturbing events.

Some employees think that taking FMLA leave gives them complete protection from disciplinary action. That just isn’t so. For example, when an employee takes FMLA leave, her work may have to be redistributed. If, during that process, you discover that the employee had been doing a poor job, you can take disciplinary action against her.

Remind upper-level managers: When a supervisor or mid-level manager makes comments that could be construed as racist or religiously motivated, it pays to act fast. In fact, firing the responsible manager sometimes can be the best way to go. That way, if the employee he disparaged later gets turned down for a promotion or a raise, it will be much harder for an attorney to show a connection between the supervisor’s biased views and the denied opportunity ...

If you're relying solely on your memory to evaluate employee performance, you're making appraisals far more difficult than necessary. That's why it's best to institute a simple recording system to document employee performance. The most useful, easy-to-implement way is to create and maintain a log for each person. Follow these six steps:

Sure, at one time or another, we’ve all worked for some great bosses and some bad bosses. But nothing can be more debilitating than working for someone who is ignorant of the laws. In the following case, a company president walked right into an FMLA lawsuit because he had never even heard of the Family and Medical Leave Act. He knows about it now ...

Even if someone else in the management hierarchy actually terminates an employee, a supervisor who’s seemingly had it in for the employee can still cause a world of legal headaches for the employer. This is the so-called “cat’s paw” legal theory, which holds that employers are liable if they approve a recommendation that is based on illegal motives such as retaliation.

Employers often get into trouble when they punish someone who has filed an internal harassment or discrimination complaint. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t discipline employees for legitimate reasons just because they filed an unrelated complaint. The key is being able to show a good reason for your actions.

When Gov. David Paterson was Senate minority leader in 2003, he fired a white photographer and replaced him with a less qualified black one. Now the state has agreed to settle the original photographer’s lawsuit for $300,000 while admitting no wrongdoing.

For the second time in a year, a North Carolina Compare Foods store has settled discrimination charges with the EEOC. As in the earlier case, this one—involving a store in Statesville—involved accusations that workers had been fired because they weren’t Hispanic.

If you’ve ever been caught up in an employment lawsuit, chances are you couldn’t wait for it to be over. Yet every case presents a valuable opportunity to prevent future problems and improve HR effectiveness by conducting an “autopsy” of the claim.

Want to know how to get under the skin of the lawyers who represent employees? Ask one. They won't all cop to what sinks their cases, but this one did. Learn what she fears most when staring down an employer in court.

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:

If you punish two employees differently for what looks like the same rule violation or mistake, you’d better be prepared to explain why. If you are later challenged, you should be able to show that the two weren’t “similarly situated” and prove you didn’t favor one over the other.

Discipline and termination meetings are emotionally charged events that carry the potential for nasty words, hurt feelings and even legal troubles. As a manager, you never know how employees will respond to discipline or firings. But you need to be prepared for anything—including employees who “let it all out” in long, loud rants. Follow these four do’s and don’ts to defuse rants and avoid lawsuits:

It often makes sense to give a fresh start to a poorly performing employee who has been complaining about discrimination. Place her in another position with a new supervisor, new co-workers and a clean disciplinary record. Then if her workplace problems persist, you can terminate her without worrying about retaliation claims.

Some employees think they know their jobs better than their supervisors do. They want to decide which parts of their jobs are important and which parts are not. Then, when evaluation time rolls around, they try to show that they achieved their own goals for their jobs—even though management wanted other goals met. Don't let this happen.

A federal judge recently certified two classes of workers in a suit accusing the law firm Thelen, LLP, of firing them without notice. Also certified were three subclasses of workers alleging that the defunct law firm failed to compensate them for vacation time.

You probably know that employers can and are sometimes held liable if their employees harm customers. That’s especially true if they knew or should have known that the employee might be dangerous. But your potential liability—if you negligently hired an employee in the first place—doesn’t go on indefinitely.

North Carolina’s Equal Employment Practices Act (EEPA) provides that “it is the public policy of this State” to protect employees from discrimination. Until now, it was unclear how far the law went in giving employees the right to directly sue their employers.

Pennsylvania common law protects employees from discharges that violate public policy, but what violates public policy isn’t defined. Courts must therefore decide what the term means.

If your organization doesn’t have a solid performance evaluation system in place, you’re taking a high-stakes gamble you just might lose. Discharged employees who sue will have a much easier time getting to a jury trial if you can’t produce performance evaluations that back up why you terminated them.

When employees approach retirement, they sometimes go on autopilot, frustrating everyone involved, including co-workers and supervisors. But you can demand productivity from such employees and discipline them accordingly. Just be prepared to take special steps to stay away from age bias claims.

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.

The more reasons you can dream up to fire an employee, the better. Right? Think again. Firing someone for one obvious rule violation will stand up better in court than a laundry list of petty transgressions ...

Surveys of U.S. workers consistently show that employees want more than a paycheck from their jobs—they want to feel safe, secure and appreciated at work. Here are eight guidelines for recognizing and rewarding employees, according to an Adecco management report.

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.

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.

Employees are often quite sophisticated about their legal rights—especially when they suspect their jobs may be on the chopping block. When they think of the lawsuit possibilities, they may even try to set up their employers. One easy way
to get a case going is to blow the whistle on alleged wrongdoing.

Sometimes, an employee whose job is in jeopardy will try to protect it by initiating a lawsuit intended to intimidate her employer. She may call in sick instead of showing up for a termination meeting, hoping to create an FMLA retaliation or interference claim. Here’s how to handle such tactics.

Employers that use an employee’s long-ago military service against him may be liable under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. USERRA isn’t just for those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Employers that “regard” people as disabled and then discriminate by firing them or refusing to hire them in the first place will face lawsuits—even if it turns out those applicants and employees aren’t actually disabled. That’s a key part of the ADA.

Q. One of our financial managers has filed for bankruptcy, and our directors now want to terminate him because they doubt his financial judgment. They’re also worried that customers will react negatively to the news that one of our finance people is going bankrupt. Can we lawfully discharge him?

If you have an employee who seems constantly exhausted, take note: He or she may suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). And under the newly revised Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), that person could be deemed “disabled” and entitled to reasonable work accommodations ...

Sunday’s Washington Post ran a front page feature article reviewing the first two years of Michelle Rhee’s tenure as the chancellor of Washington, D.C.’s public school system.  Thanks in part to extensive national coverage like the Time magazine cover to the right, Rhee has become the face of education reform in the United States.  As the article notes, what’s playing well nationally isn’t playing so well at home.  In fact, it begins by recounting the story of D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray asking Rhee when the Time cover came out, "Michelle, why would you agree to be photographed with a broom on the cover of Time magazine?" He had a couple of follow up questions for her including "What does it get you, to constantly bash those you're trying to get to help you?" and "Why did you let the picture be taken in the first place?”

Those are some pretty good questions the Chairman asked. Rhee herself acknowledges that she has made some missteps in her first two years in the job and that the grade for the DC public school system thus far is an incomplete at best. Reporter Bill Turque does a nice job of summarizing Rhee’s lessons learned thus far as:

Lesson 1: Fame Can Backfire – Rhee’s national celebrity has alienated some of her key constituencies like DC teachers and parents.

Lesson 2: Money Doesn't Always Talk – A potential 61% increase in base pay for teachers won’t get you very far if they don’t trust you.

Lesson 3: Politics Matters – As Willy Loman’s wife, Linda, said in Death of a Salesman, “Attention must be paid.”  If you’re working in a political environment as Rhee is, you have to pay attention to the politicians.

Lesson 4: Beware Unintended Consequences – It’s called a school system for a reason.  As is the case with any system, when you change one variable (e.g. closing schools, reducing central staff, adjusting pay plans), the entire system changes, sometimes in unexpected ways.

Being a smart and talented person,  Rhee has adjusted her approach in some ways perhaps most notably in paying more attention to the City Council and teachers’ unions. Still, in reading between the lines of Turque’s article, I think I see some indicators of potential future trouble for Rhee.  These add up to caveats for any leader charged with securing radically different results. Not that she’s asked, but here’s my advice for Rhee and leaders in comparable situations:

If you have ever been tempted to fire an alleged harasser just because you suspected the alleged victim might sue, consider this: The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has concluded that fear of being sued is no excuse for firing a suspected harasser without investigating.

Employees do the darnedest things, and it’s often up to HR to clean up the resulting mess. Better to have prevented it in the first place. Two recent news stories point out problems that could have been stopped with simple policies on use of technology in the workplace. With the right handbook lingo, much corporate embarrassment could have been avoided.

You might have rogue managers in your midst without even knowing it. If one of your supervisors has it in for a subordinate for discriminatory reasons, and you rely on his recommendation to terminate an employee, you may be in trouble.

Some conditions aren’t serious enough to constitute disabilities, but some supervisors wrongly assume they do. That’s a major problem: By assuming a condition is disabling, they’re “regarding” the employee as disabled—something the ADA prohibits. Thus, the ADA protects even employees who aren’t disabled.

Here’s a simple way to prevent lawsuits when you have to fire a recently hired employee: Direct the person who hired the employee to also do the firing. If the employee belongs to a protected class, courts will conclude that the termination wasn’t discriminatory. Otherwise, why would the employee have been hired in the first place?

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.

Employees who have been terminated often claim they suffered some form of discrimination or harassment. That’s one good reason to tell managers and supervisors they need to keep each and every piece of paper, phone message and e-mail that led up to the firing.

Murphy Ford of Chester will pay $244,000 to settle sexual harassment complaints from three female employees. According to a complaint filed with the EEOC, the women complained to management about the dealership’s service manager who used to grab his private parts and make sexually explicit comments.

A newly elected official may want to terminate those employees politically tied to his predecessor—and he often may ask HR how to handle the firings. Because such cases can be close calls, always refer the matter to experienced legal counsel.

The Shopper’s Vineyard wine superstore in Clifton has agreed to settle a race discrimination case after the EEOC filed suit on behalf of a black front-line manager who was terminated during an alleged downsizing.

Sometimes, it’s obvious early on that a new employee isn’t working out. Firing such an employee won’t cause legal trouble as long as you based the call on previously set performance standards, job-related testing or some other impartial evaluation process.

Do you sometimes let employees bend company policy … just a little? It’s really no big deal, right? A new court ruling warns that if you start bending a policy for one, you’d better be ready to bend it for all. Being flexible can sometimes be fatal.

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.

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.

Here are the top six mistakes managers make when they have to terminate an employee. Any one of them can cause a costly trip to court when the employee sues. Learn more about terminating employees without increasing your lawsuit risk. Our upcoming audio conference, "Trouble-Free Terminations: Legally Safe Layoffs and Firings," tells you how.

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.

Before firing any employee who has filed a harassment complaint, make sure your reasons are solid—and extremely well documented. That means checking to make sure supervisors followed company rules. Ensure that other employees with similar records were also fired. And be sure all documentation you are relying on was clearly created before the discrimination complaint.

Sometimes, employers conducting harassment investigations find themselves in no-win situations, especially when there are conflicting claims and classic “he said, she said” scenarios. You risk a lawsuit if you fire the alleged harasser, most likely alleging some other illegal reason for your decision to terminate. The way to win these cases: Thoroughly document the investigation.

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.

If you offer last-chance agreements instead of immediately firing employees, you can impose seemingly draconian measures without worrying about a lawsuit. If you later terminate an employee for violating agreement terms, most courts will take your side.

When two workers complained to two co-workers that their employer wasn’t providing protective gear while they installed insulation, it started a chain of events that led to their firings.

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 FMLA grants eligible employees the right to take time off to deal with their own or a covered relative’s serious health condition. What has been unclear until now is what happens when an employee rushes to the emergency room believing a true medical emergency exists, only to find out that the condition was less serious than originally believed.

Tell managers and supervisors not to embellish the reasons for discharging an employee. If they do, they risk the potential for a defamation lawsuit. That may be true even if the former employee is compelled to repeat the allegedly false information.

Employees who suspect their employers are trying to get them to leave voluntarily instead of firing them outright sometimes do quit. Then they turn around and sue under the theory of “constructive discharge.” Essentially, they argue their employer made their lives so miserable they had no choice but to resign. Fortunately for employers, courts are fairly strict in how they view constructive discharges.

A federal jury in Trenton has awarded $10,000 to a man denied a job at UPS because he refused to shave off his one-inch beard. Roniss Mason of Jersey City claimed shaving violated his Rastafarian religious beliefs and filed a complaint with the EEOC.

Q. We’re closing our doors and firing all of our employees. As president, I am considering not paying my employees their final paychecks, even though they have earned that pay. Is this a risk?

Issue: Poorly written layoff letters can open your organization to legal action. No matter how you write layoff letters, they are bound to anger employees, especially if the employees don’t see it coming. Don’t give irate employees legal ammunition by writing misleading, inaccurate or insensitive layoff letters. Action: Create notices that explain the layoff in the most straightforward, respectful manner possible. To avoid legal action, think of layoff letters as informal legal documents that include the following:

The Fair Credit Reporting Act regulates how your company performs a job background check on applicants. Contrary to popular belief, this federal law doesn’t just cover credit checks. It covers any background report, such as driving records and criminal histories obtained from a “consumer reporting agency.”

One thing is for sure about living in 2009. You don’t have to look very hard to find examples of what happens when people lose their grip on the boundaries that previously brought order to their lives.  Let’s take a look at a few examples that range from the seemingly ridiculous to the very serious to see what the common denominator lessons might be.

You never appreciate a good performer until you’ve fired a bad performer. That’s because bad performers take so much time and attention to manage. From the moment you sense that an employee isn’t working out—and you set in motion disciplinary steps—you have to imagine a judge and jury watching your every move. That way, you can stand behind your actions without feeling embarrassed or guilty.

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.

Mounting layoffs are creating a glut of qualified and aggressive job hunters who are desperate for work. As their frustration grows, more applicants are reading deeper into their rejection letters—sometimes spotting job promises or hints of discrimination that you never intended.

A Bronx jury has ordered Bernard Spitzer, father of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, to pay more than $1.3 million to four former employees to settle racial discrimination charges.

Discharged employees who sue over alleged discrimination often must prove that the reason their employers gave for firing them was really a cover for discrimination. If you’re very specific about your reason for terminating an employee, you’re likely to win these kinds of lawsuits.

What’s a manager to do when faced with conflicting accounts of an argument between employees? An important part of that answer is to resolve the conflict quickly, before it spreads like a cancer through your organization ...

Regular attendance is a key job function for most of your employees. But while you are free to set and enforce attendance rules, you must also comply with key federal laws, including the FMLA and the ADA ...

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?

Jan Horah, a former director of the Gulf Beaches Public Library, and Harriet Thompkins, a former assistant director and reference librarian, have threatened lawsuits challenging their terminations. The women, who are black, claim they were terminated abruptly in November in violation of their contracts.

Q. One of my employees has created his own web site. Recently, he has been posting negative comments about our company. Specifically, he has accused the company of failing to provide adequate benefits and paying below-market wages. Can we fire the worker for this conduct?

Sometimes, when an employee knows he is about to be fired, he tries to link the impending termination with some alleged harassment. The hope: The claim will somehow stop the termination—or at least win a lawsuit. The best way to defend against such a claim is to have rock-solid reasons for every discharge.

You don’t need to give employees FMLA leave just because they have a discharge sheet from a hospital emergency room. The real question is whether the medical condition that prompted them to visit the ER was a serious health condition.

There’s always a chance that a fired employee could sue and win. But if, after the discharge, you discover other reasons that would have led you to fire the employee anyway, you may not be liable for much in the way of lost wages. And you certainly won’t have to reinstate the employee.

Employees who are fired after breaking work rules often allege that they were targeted because of some protected characteristic like gender, age, race or ethnicity. The best way to counter such claims is to know beforehand whether your organization is being tougher on some employees who belong to a protected class while letting others slide.

Sometimes, you have to trust that your lawyer and the courts will do the right thing and toss out a clearly frivolous case. As long as you are sure that you have solid reasons for firing an employee who wasn’t doing her job—and that you didn’t treat her any differently than any other employee with the same track record—fire her.

About a dozen states have laws that allow employees to take job-protected leave to deal with domestic violence issues. But take note: Even if your state doesn’t have a specific law, you may need to grant such rights as a matter of “public policy.” A recent court ruling from Washington state shows the legal risks.

Q. I recently discovered that an employee who handles my company’s accounts receivable has filed for bankruptcy. Can I discharge this employee?

Employers can terminate an employee on FMLA leave if it becomes clear she will not return. But get this one wrong and you may end up in court. A better approach: Wait to do the firing.

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.

Terminating an employee is one of the most stressful tasks managers and HR pros will ever have to face. Don't let a difficult job turn into a legal nightmare too. Avoid these common firing mistakes, and you'll probably avoid an expensive trip to court as well.

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.

The Internet has created a whole new pond for employment lawyers to fish in. But you’re not powerless to your employees’ embarrassing—and potentially illegal—online activities. You can discipline employees who go over the line. Here's a recent example, plus five tips to help you avoid legal trouble ...

Here’s a cautionary tale you can tell employees when explaining they should never touch a fellow employee. With video surveillance cameras everywhere, such incidents may be caught on tape, and the employee doing the touching may have an innocent explanation that just won’t be heard over what seems to be happening on camera.

Employees sometimes don’t want to give their employers personal details about an illness or a condition that may be covered by the FMLA. But if you find out they lied about the nature of their health problems, you can fire them for violating your honesty policy.

Employers sometimes come up with some very specific rules for when and how employees must call in to let their bosses know they will miss work. Sometimes those rules become contracts ...

Two former Neiman Marcus loss prevention investigators who were fired from Neiman Marcus in October 2007 for having sex on the job are suing the company for illegally videotaping them.

Marsha Bartel was an award-winning NBC journalist working on the “Dateline NBC” television show. NBC fired her, claiming it was laying off staff. She sued, alleging NBC had fired her for complaining that the show was not adhering to NBC’s internal ethical standards. The case offers some important reminders about how to handle termination of at-will employees.

Erik Forman, a barista at a Minneapolis Starbucks who claimed he was fired in July for promoting a union drive, is pouring ventes again after the java giant settled a National Labor Relations Board complaint he filed.

Have you ever approved FMLA leave for an employee’s medical ailment but had a sneaking suspicion the time would be spent on more than bed rest? If you discover “creative” uses of FMLA leave, be careful not to pull out the “You’re Fired!” finger too quickly or you may find yourself in the center of an FMLA retaliation lawsuit ...

Here’s something to keep in mind when you find yourself having to terminate an employee who may later sue for race or other discrimination. Past positive evaluations and promotions can be used as solid evidence you didn’t discriminate against the employee.

Employees and their lawyers are always looking for more ways to wring money out of employers that make mistakes. The latest trend in wage-and-hour cases, for example, is to file an FLSA lawsuit and then seek to collect additional damages by tacking on additional claims under New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act. Here's how ...

Sometimes, candidates filling out job applications think it’s a good idea to omit information about minor criminal convictions and past problems such as terminations. If your application specifically asks for that information and someone you hired didn’t supply it, you can terminate for lying on the application.

Most employment contracts are written documents prepared with the assistance of an attorney. However, an employment contract can be oral, written, or partially oral and partially written. If an employer isn’t careful, it’s easy to unknowingly enter into an employment contract with an employee.

Public employers, take note: If an employee has an outspoken spouse who chooses to voice concerns about the actions of the government agency, think twice before punishing the employee. It may amount to depriving the spouse of her First Amendment right to speak out on public issues.

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.

Q. The owner of our company recently fired an employee who refused to run a business-related errand. The employee said running errands wasn’t in his job description. Can he sue us for wrongful termination? ...

A temporary employment agency violated federal labor law by including a confidentiality provision in an employment contract, according to a recent NLRB ruling (Northeastern Land Services, Ltd. dba The NLS Group and Jamison John Dupuy, 352 NLRB No. 89, 2008). In the case, the agency fired a worker for violating the confidentiality provision ...

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 key to a sound discipline policy is equal treatment for all who commit similar offenses. You can’t decide to treat some employees more leniently than others without very good reason. And you’d better nail down that reason at the time you make the decision—not months or years later, after another employee has sued.

Not every sexual harassment complaint is legitimate. A thorough investigation may wind up showing that one of the parties is lying. Can you fire the presumed liar if he or she brought the complaint in the first place? The answer is a qualified “yes” ...

A recent study by Michigan State University and Hope College found that employers perceive overweight workers as lazier, more emotionally unstable and harder to get along with than their “normal weight” counterparts.

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 ...

Combat stifling bureaucracy by coaching or removing indecisive managers, advises Ram Charan, co-author of Execution. “You know who they are,” he tells BusinessWeek ...

Georgia ended its fiscal year with a $1.6 billion budget shortfall, money it will have to squeeze out of its spending in the coming fiscal year. As a result, state workers in numerous departments and agencies are facing layoffs, pay freezes and reduced hours.

Amanda Thaxton, a former office assistant at the North Carolina State Ethics Commission, has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit claiming she was fired in retaliation for speaking with the State Auditor’s Office about possible protocol violations ...

To sue for discrimination, employees must prove the employer did something that amounted to an adverse employment action—a firing, demotion or some other act that substantially affected the terms and conditions of employment. Do sexist comments that undermine a female employee’s authority constitute an adverse employment action? ...

Under the ADA, employees who aren’t actually disabled can nonetheless sue employers if the employers erroneously perceive them to be disabled. But there’s good news on this arcane ADA front ...

Sometimes, it becomes clear early on that it was a mistake to hire that new employee. If it doesn’t look as though things will improve, it’s a good idea to let the same manager who recommended hiring the employee also be the one to fire her. That makes the termination decision much easier to defend if there’s any question about possible discrimination.

A federal court has tossed out a lawsuit alleging that a government agency unconstitutionally interfered in another agency’s hiring and firing practices ...

Wise HR professionals understand that, before jumping the gun and firing an employee who has filed a complaint, a thorough investigation is in order. But that’s when many employees try to negotiate a severance package in exchange for a resignation. If the investigation and negotiations drag on, can you discharge the employee for making what you consider unreasonable demands? ...

Title VII prohibits employers with 15 or more employees from religious discrimination. It outlaws treating employees or applicants differently based on their religion in any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, promotions, discipline and pay. To help employers comply with the law, the EEOC issued new, specific guidelines in 2008.

There’s no substitute for boots on the ground when it comes to protecting employees from supervisors with hidden discriminatory agendas. If you ignore the warning signs of supervisor bias and leave the “bad boss” in place, it’s probably just a matter of time before you find yourself responding to a lawsuit ...

The Altoona City Council fired Police Officer Herrick Johnson on Sept. 10 for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old girl he met online. Johnson, 49, met the girl through a web site that promoted law enforcement careers ...

By forcing top military and civilian leaders to resign this spring, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates showed that he’ll hold people accountable for fixing serious problems.

The FMLA limits leave eligibility to those employees who have worked at least 1,250 hours in the previous 12 months. Employers are perfectly within their rights to stick scrupulously to that 1,250-hour benchmark. They don’t have to round the hours up if the employee comes up short ...

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 ...

It happens at meetings more often than it should: Co-workers bad-mouth one another’s work in front of the group. Nothing is quite as frustrating as being “cut off at the knees.”

An important—but often overlooked—step in performance appraisals is to ask employees to grade themselves. But don't just give them the same appraisal form used by supervisors. Instead, use a separate form that allows them to recap their achievements, identify shortcomings and initiate discussions regarding their development.  A good self-evaluation form asks these three core questions ... 

Employment terminations fall into several categories. Whether the situation involves new hires who didn’t work out, firings for cause or performance issues, or voluntary resignations, terminations often lead to litigation. For each type of termination, there are some common ways employers can make sure they can defend themselves if challenged ...

When an employee sues over an alleged discriminatory firing, courts typically make a beeline for one piece of evidence: the employee’s performance evaluation. The problem: Supervisors are notorious for giving overly kind evaluations, even to poor performers. That’s why it’s wise to get another opinion: the employee’s own ...

Employers and HR professionals should make it their policy never to hire a candidate without a comprehensive background check. But, they also must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which regulates how employers perform employment background checks on job applicants. Contrary to popular belief, this federal law doesn’t cover just credit checks.

File this one under “no good deed goes unpunished.” Michigan grocery clerk John Schultz says he lost his job after trying to thwart the getaway of an alleged shoplifter. The firing offense? Touching a customer ...

Sometimes, an HR internal investigation reveals that, although harassment occurred, it didn’t rise to the level of illegal harassment. Don’t let that finding lull you into ignoring the complaint—and certainly don’t allow anyone to punish the person who complained ...

It seems pretty obvious you can’t legally fire an employee because she took FMLA leave. Every employer knows that, right? Perhaps not. Recently, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals had to rule on the question when an employer hoped to get a definitive ruling that employees are entitled to leave, but can be fired for using that leave ...

The Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, upheld the firing of Karen Kridel, a former paralegal with Dibble & Miller, PC, in Rochester, for taking smoking breaks. Kridel customarily took two five-minute breaks from her work each day to smoke ...

Sometimes, you just know that the reason a supervisor offers in a memo or e-mail for wanting to fire someone is going to look suspicious if the employee ever sues. If you can’t persuade the supervisor to reconsider, resist the temptation to help sugarcoat the situation with a neutral-sounding reason. It will only make matters worse when the employee’s lawyer inevitably discovers the memo or e-mail ...

Memories fade and employees come and go. That’s why it’s crucial for HR to keep certain records for future reference. Among these records are organizational charts showing who had supervisory and other authority over other employees. Why? Lawsuits over lost promotions or firings can take years before they actually go to trial ...

If you are an Illinois employer with 15 or more employees and your application asks job-seekers to detail their criminal histories, expunged criminal records pose a hidden trap for you ...

HR Law 101: The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), signed into law in May 2008, prohibits employers with 15 or more employees from discriminating against job applicants or employees based on their genetic information in hiring, firing, compensation or any other terms of employment.

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 ...

If employees are at-will workers, you can fire them for any reason or no reason at all, as long as it’s not discriminatory. But, as a new ruling shows, supervisors should resist that quick-trigger urge if that employee recently voiced a discrimination complaint ...

If, like many employers, you require arbitration to settle employment disputes instead of allowing costly court fights, be aware of a new danger. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals recently clarified that an employee’s refusal to sign an arbitration agreement when he already has a pending EEOC complaint is protected activity. Firing such an employee for refusing to sign is retaliation ...

Firing an employee is never easy, but there’s no reason to try to justify your decision by piling on a litany of reasons to discharge a poorly performing employee. That just complicates the process. Chances are, a court won’t second-guess you if you simply stick to the strongest reason you have for the firing ...

The ADA makes it illegal to discriminate against applicants or employees with disabilities. Typically, only permanent conditions count. But not always. Some temporary medical conditions also can constitute disabilities if they are severe enough at the time the condition exists ...

As a conscientious HR pro, you no doubt try to make the best employment decisions you can, based on legitimate reasons and valid evidence. But that doesn’t mean you have to treat the HR office like a court of law, spending weeks conducting investigations and sorting through evidence ...

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.” ...

Good news: Your managers and supervisors aren’t individually liable for violating either the Texas Whistleblower Act or the Texas Labor Code. That means your personal assets aren’t on the line ...

HR Law 101: Two laws govern U.S. immigration policy: the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, which was amended in 1990. For each new employee hired, U.S. employers must complete a Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. The I-9 establishes the employee’s identity and legal work status.

When employers make employment decisions based on sex stereotypes about caregivers or favor employees who don’t have family responsibilities, affected employees can successfully sue for family responsibilities discrimination (FRD) ...

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...

Once an employer knows an employee will need FMLA leave, it cannot use that knowledge to the employee’s disadvantage. That’s true even if it’s only possible that the employee may need leave. It raises serious suspicions about your motives if you fire an employee shortly after he delivers notice he may need FMLA leave—and practically guarantees a lawsuit ...

Over the course of a 16-year career, Ronnie McNorton found himself on the receiving end of many disciplinary actions by his employer, the Georgia Department of Transportation. But McNorton hung on and won several promotions. In 2002, that advancement stalled, ironically because McNorton helped another state employee get her career off the ground. If only he could have kept his stories straight ...

The only thing between your organization and a discriminatory discharge verdict is the HR office. An impartial and cool-headed HR professional must oversee the process every time an employee is terminated. Keep careful track of exactly how the decision-making process moves forward in every case, and insist that HR have the final word on termination ...

It takes more than a trip to the family doctor, a diagnosis and a prescription to establish a disability and qualify for protection under the ADA. Employees who say they are disabled must be able to show that they are substantially impaired in a major life function. And taking medication may mean an employee is not disabled because it can reduce the effects of even serious illnesses ...

File this one under “no good deed goes unpunished.” Michigan grocery clerk John Schultz says he lost his job after trying to thwart the getaway of an alleged shoplifter. The firing offense? Touching a customer ...

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 ...

After using up their available 12 weeks’ unpaid FMLA leave, many new mothers request additional time off. If you agree to additional time off to be covered by a short-term disability policy, check to see if that policy includes job protection. If it doesn’t, you don’t have to hold her job or even reinstate her. Don’t, however, start the search for her replacement while the employee is still on FMLA leave ...

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 ...

Jane Roberti worked as a loan officer for Allentown’s Becker Subaru. Her live-in boyfriend, Mark Wynne, also worked there as a salesman. Roberti’s responsibilities included funneling Internet sales leads to the salespeople. When employees began to complain that Roberti routed the best leads to Wynne, management counseled both to keep their personal and professional lives separate ...

A white environmental services attendant recently sued St. Vincent Carmel Hospital, claiming racial discrimination and retaliation. He was fired for violating the hospital’s anti-violence policy ...

Once an employer knows an employee will need FMLA leave, it cannot use that knowledge to the employee’s disadvantage. That’s true even if it’s only possible that the employee may need leave. It raises serious suspicions about your motives if you fire an employee shortly after he delivers notice he may need FMLA leave—and practically guarantees a lawsuit ...

Sometimes, a problem employee claims harassment as a way to protect herself from legitimate discipline. When that happens, it may be tempting to ignore such claims on the presumption they are bogus. It may be tempting to dismiss her complaints as much ado about nothing. But you’ll ignore her at your own peril ...

Here’s a test that measures your broad knowledge of the HR field. From the FMLA to comp and benefits to employee behavior you’d rather not know about, we’ve got the questions. Do you have the answers?

When an employee everyone considered loyal suddenly starts complaining to a regulatory agency about alleged workplace violations, it’s natural to be upset. But resist the temptation to send the employee a message by suddenly enforcing the work rules zealously ...

Harman Corporation, a vinyl supplier based in Rochester, hired Jeff Cole to work in its print shop in 1993. He later transferred to production and, finally, to maintenance. In 2005, one of Cole’s supervisors, Randy Fox, showed Cole nude pictures of Fox’s wife ...

Sometimes employees who know they are in trouble at work will try to set up lawsuits. That way, they reason, if they get fired, they can sue for “retaliation.” It’s up to HR to ferret out such sneaky tricks and prevent those lawsuits. The best way is to make absolutely sure that you can justify any eventual discipline ...

Good news for employers: Workers who claim they have been retaliated against for whistle-blowing under the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA) have to show more than generalized displeasure with their organizations’ actions. Mere harassment isn’t enough—the employer has to take concrete action such as firing, demoting or denying promotions ...

“Do that one more time and you’re through!” Have supervisors in your organization (or even you) uttered this phrase before? A new court ruling shows that if your firing threats are simply empty promises, be prepared to pay up in court ... even if you responded promptly and lawfully to the initial complaint.

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 ...

Does your organization have a rule against removing company documents from the workplace? If not, consider adding one. Documents should remain on the premises, and allowing them to “walk” can spell big trouble. For example, employees may be tempted to remove and copy documents they think will aid a later lawsuit against the company ...

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has accused Manhattan’s Saigon Grill restaurants of illegally firing 22 delivery drivers because they requested minimum wage. The workers complained they were paid as little as $120 for a workweek that sometimes reached 75 hours ...

In a company downsizing, management may make what seem like capricious decisions on who stays and who goes. That can be a huge problem if an older employee suspects age discrimination and sues—especially if there are other smoking-gun signs of discrimination, such as a supervisor’s apparent antipathy for older workers ...

The Ohio Supreme Court has substantially limited the “voluntary abandonment” doctrine in claims for temporary total disability compensation under the Ohio Workers’ Compensation Act. That means employers may have to pay temporary total disability payments to employees even if they were injured while breaking safety rules ...

Employers that tell workers to “start looking for another job” may find themselves paying unemployment compensation when the employees do just that—by quitting right away instead of waiting for the pink slip ...

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 ...

We’ve all dealt with employees who constantly make petty complaints about others. We’d rather just ignore the litany, but that’s probably not the best course of action. Buried beneath the nonsensical complaints may be a genuine one—one that requires prompt action. As the following case shows, acting right away when a legitimate gripe surfaces can mean the difference between a lawsuit and the same case being dismissed before it ever gets to trial ...

Want to guarantee a day in court with an  employee who blows the whistle on alleged company wrongdoing? Just take adverse action against him—firing, demotion or suspension, for example—within hours of hearing about the complaint. If you already had planned to take action, make sure you can substantiate it. Be sure you can also show there are no “smoking guns” that could point to a different motivation ...

You probably heard about last month’s big $11.6 million sexual harassment verdict against former basketball star and New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas. The bad news: Your employees heard about it, too … and it planted a seed in their minds. Will they see your organization’s pockets as the path to a similar windfall? ...

FedEx Ground/Home Delivery drivers have filed suit in the federal district court in South Bend, claiming the delivery giant fired them in retaliation for exercising their legal rights. The California-based drivers, who operate single routes as contractors, have fought for years to obtain employment status with the company ...

In today’s litigious environment, it doesn’t take much for a disgruntled employee to launch a class-action overtime lawsuit. In fact, such litigation is sweeping the country—and costing employers millions of dollars. That’s why conscientious employers act fast to stamp out a dangerous and illegal practice: managers altering pay records to avoid paying overtime. If you catch managers cooking the payroll books, punish them promptly ...

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a sex-discrimination case brought by a general manager of a Best Buy store in Savannah. The lawsuit accused Best Buy of firing the manager because she complained to a company hotline that her supervisor sexually discriminated against her ...

If you have long-term employees whose performances are deteriorating, step carefully. Their long histories with the company could mean you’ll have a hard time justifying terminations even in light of poor performances. Instead of jumping the gun and firing immediately, take your time. In fact, it may be a good idea to allow more than one supervisor to witness each declining employee performance up close ...

he Michigan Whistleblowers’ Protection Act protects employees who report suspected wrongdoing to public authorities from retaliation. An employer that knows an employee has reported alleged wrongdoing must take special care when disciplining or discharging that employee. Unless you have an absolutely legitimate business reason for your action, the timing makes the decision suspect and will most likely lead to a jury trial ...

Planned Parenthood Centers of West Michigan in Grand Rapids won a race discrimination case filed by a black health care specialist, who was fired for falsifying patient records and dispensing emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) without required staff approvals ...

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 ...

Janitors working in Miami’s Bayside Mall joined with workers from five states to fight the coercive anti-union tactics of General Growth Properties (GGP) and two of its cleaning contractors. The National Labor Relations Board has sought a rare 10(j) injunction—a federal court order reserved for cases of egregious violations of workers’ civil rights—against the companies ...

South Florida has become the epicenter of the transgender civil rights movement following the firing of Largo City Manager Susan Stanton. It was too much for city leaders to take when Stanton transitioned from male to female. She was dismissed despite a good job performance ...

Employers don’t have to be perfect decision-makers—just honest ones. That means that disciplining or even firing someone because you believed the employee violated a rule is OK even if you turn out to be wrong about the violation. Be prepared, though, to prove to a court that your belief was based on particular facts, not just guesses ...

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 ...

Lake Ridge Academy, a private K-12 school in North Ridgeville, has been hit with two lawsuits claiming it fired James Whiteman, head of the elementary school, for inquiring about the differences between female and male teachers’ pay ...

Developing, implementing and enforcing a comprehensive anti-harassment policy is vital to create a safe and comfortable work environment and minimize the potential damage from harassment lawsuits. But having an anti-harassment policy is not enough; the policy must be implemented, promulgated and consistently enforced. Training employees and managers on harassment law and the employer’s harassment policy is an important part of an employer’s defense against a harassment claim—whether the alleged harassment was by a supervisor or a co-worker ...

Millions of Americans have diabetes, and millions more have it but don’t know it. But with new medications and careful diet, most diabetics can control their condition and lead largely normal lives. That has implications for how employers handle their ADA obligations ...

Sometimes, serious allegations—possible theft, sexual or racial harassment or violence—surface against employees. How you respond can be crucial to limiting your organization’s liability. The best response may be calling a timeout in the form of administrative leave pending an investigation. You can safely do so without fear that the move will generate even more litigation from a suspected wrongdoer ...

When an employee goes on FMLA leave, someone has to do the work. What if that someone easily assumes the employee’s duties and does a great job? Can you use that fortuitous realization as the basis for firing the leave-taker when he returns? Perhaps, but there’s a risk. The employee may sue, alleging the real reason he was let go was retaliation for taking leave, and not that you figured out the company could get along just fine without him ...

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 ...

Do your employees ever take time off (whether vacation, personal time or even FMLA leave) to work a second job? You can’t do much about that unless you have a solid policy that prohibits moonlighting. Otherwise, employees on leave are free to spend that time any way they want, even working for someone else or in their own business ...

Nothing raises suspicion among judges and juries more than inconsistent explanations. For example, shifting reasons for firing someone can backfire. You’re courting trouble if the employee filed a discrimination claim with your HR office or the EEOC or sued your organization before being fired. The key to a clean discharge—especially when the employee has filed discrimination charges—is picking a legitimate reason for firing the employee and sticking with it ...

Employees who claim they were fired illegally and whose jobs are protected by the Civil Service Act can win their lawsuits—if they can prove the Civil Service Board merely rubber-stamped a supervisor’s discriminatory decision. Until now, it was unclear whether that was the case ...

Tom Ahl Buick prevailed in an age discrimination suit despite the fact that owner Tom Ahl told the plaintiff his Lima dealership was having a “youth movement.” He later demoted the 40-something plaintiff from his sales manager position and hired a 25-year-old former furniture salesman to take over ...

While the ADA requires companies to make job accommodations for disabled workers, you don’t have to employ anyone who can’t perform the “essential functions” of the job. And on-time attendance is an “essential function,” right? Not necessarily, as the following case shows ...

Does your organization make important hiring and firing decisions by committee? That’s one way to counter possible bias by one individual. But be prepared to document how the group made the decision ...

New York state law provides personal liability for workplace discrimination. Employees who aid and abet their employers in discriminatory acts may be sued personally and can lose their assets. But exactly what acts constitute “aiding and abetting”? ...

A federal jury has awarded $100,000 for pain and suffering to a former director of special education for the Malverne School District, who claimed she was fired for reporting sexual harassment. The director lost her underlying sexual harassment suit, but prevailed on the wrongful-firing claim ...

Is your organization going through a transition period marked by discharges and new hires? If so, take a quick look at your pre- and post-transition work force composition. If the diversity of your work force has changed dramatically, you may need to consider the possibility of a federal lawsuit hitting you next. If this sounds familiar, rethink your strategy before it’s too late ...

A U.S. District Court judge has issued a temporary restraining order that stops the Department of Homeland Security from enforcing new rules on how employers must respond to no-match letters. A groups of civil liberties and labor organizations filed a lawsuit charging that the agency doesn't have the authority to use Social Security records to crack down on illegal immigration.

Employers can’t cater to every customer’s whim, but they can respond to complaints about employee behavior without worrying that a judge will second-guess their decision ...

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/) ...

Faced with a performance problem, too many employers seize on the first reason to discharge an employee instead of thoroughly reviewing the person’s work and documenting any problems in his or her file. That’s fine, if the firing rationale stands up to scrutiny and the employee doesn’t sue. But if the employee claims some form of discrimination, you want the reason you chose to be rock-solid ...

Nothing makes a former employee’s attorney sing for joy more than an employer that ignores a lawsuit. In fact, when employers ignore lawsuits and hope they will go away, it’s almost certain the attorney—and the employee the attorney represents—will have a fast and easy payday. That’s why you should immediately contact counsel with any legal papers that come your way ...

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 ...

The decks are stacked against employees who claim retaliation when there is no direct evidence of discrimination—if employers keep complete written records of their disciplinary actions. Those cases often hinge on allegations the employer trumped up disciplinary charges to cover up retaliation. That can be difficult for an employee to prove if there is a solid paper trail documenting the employee’s infractions and the resulting discipline ...

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 ...

Under Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA), it’s direct evidence of discrimination if a supervisor or manager with hiring or firing power makes comments about an applicant’s or employee’s foreign accent. That’s why it’s crucial for HR to remind managers and supervisors to watch what they say ...

An employee who reports that his or her employer is violating state or federal law may be protected from discharge. The employee can sue for retaliatory discharge and also on the premise that firing him or her violates public policy ...

North Carolina mirrors America’s growing diversity in many ways. Today, mosques occupy old churches, co-workers wear burqas and yarmulkes, and some employees request “prayer breaks.” Religious diversity is a reason for celebration, but it also presents challenges in the workplace ...

Q. We have an employee whom we fired on a Monday and we paid him his final check on the next regular payday (the following Friday). He said we legally had to issue his final check within 48 hours of the firing. Is that true?—M.D. ...

Mid-State Motors of Fort Wayne will pay $1.1 million to a former sales manager for retaliating against him after he filed an EEOC complaint. The sales manager, Trent Chapin, was replaced by a Pakistani Muslim employee shortly after a new Pakistani general manager took over the dealership ...

You’ve heard a rumor that one of your employees is looking for or has already accepted another job. Then you call him into a meeting to discuss the matter. You ask whether the rumor is true. That’s when the employee admits the job hunt, but hits you with the reason: He claims the work environment is so hostile that he has no choice but to look. What’s your next step? Do you fire him since he’s looking for other work? Or do you tell him you will investigate his claims and then follow up? ...

Ted Doudak, president of Riva Jewelry Manufacturing in Long Island, was forced to testify in court whether he believes homosexuality is a sin against God, and gays and lesbians are doomed to eternal damnation. The former employee who brought the lawsuit claims he was fired a day after telling Doudak that the employee’s daughter is a lesbian and the employee is gay ...

A female temporary worker on a long-term assignment for NJ-based Philips Lighting Co. won a $164,850 verdict for gender discrimination against the company. The woman, who worked in the warehouse of the company’s Mountaintop, PA, plant, claimed the company offered full-time positions only to male temps. She asked about full-time employment several times and was told she was next in line. Instead, she was fired ...

How far can employees go when firing off comments on the web on their own time? What if the employee is a public servant? For Bernie Kieklak, chief of staff for state Sen. Lisa Boscola, the answer is pretty far ...

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 ...

Hiring managers spend too much time interviewing candidates—and asking them the wrong questions. Then they’re often surprised to have to fire those same candidates a few months later after discovering that good interview skills don’t necessarily signal a great job fit. The problem: Employers often hire for hard skills but fire for soft skills, says Karl Ahlrichs of Hiring Smart, an Indiana firm specializing in employee selection. Instead, says Ahlrichs, “Our new slogan should be, ‘Fire them before we hire them.’” ...

Because the FMLA is an entitlement law, employers can’t interfere with emplolyees taking leave. But what about a chronically absent employee whom you’ve given one last chance? Do you have to sort out whether that final absence is covered by the FMLA—even if you could have fired him or her for absenteeism before? The answer is unequivocally “yes” ...

Under California law, employees are entitled to overtime payments unless the law exempts them from protection. But It’s up to employers to justify each exemption they claim ...

Village Green Companies, a residential leasing company based in Oak Park, sparked a public outcry when it fired a leasing agent for bringing a shotgun with him when he helped to rescue a wounded neighbor ...

It pays to tread cautiously when dealing with employees who have publicly criticized their employers ...

Nothing will sink an employer’s case faster than a manager’s careless comment ...

A Long Island woman has filed suit against Banc of America Securities, alleging the company “left her to hang out to dry and get punished by her co-workers” after she made a sexual-harassment complaint ...

Culling through stacks of resumes and conducting two or three rounds of interviews takes too long, is too subjective and too often results in bad hires. Employee selection expert Karl Alrichs proposes a four-step hiring process that saves managers time, reveals the best candidates, and highlights the intangibles that separate good employees from the bad ones.

No single federal law governs job applications. Your biggest risk is asking unnecessary questions that run afoul of federal or state laws banning job discrimination on the basis of sex, age, race, religion, national origin or disability. But, done right, your application can be a great tool to communicate important information ...

The New York Human Rights Law, like Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act, makes it illegal to fire an employee because of his or her race. Both laws also recognize that it’s unlikely that a manager who is aware of an employee’s race when hiring would turn around and fire the same employee because of race ...

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

The South Florida Water Management District will pay $160,000 for firing an employee who complained of discrimination. The employee had a 31-year record of good reviews with the district until a new supervisor took over ...

Nothing will land an employer in legal hot water faster than firing an employee who just made a discrimination complaint. At first glance, it will almost always look like retaliation. But that doesn’t mean your hands are tied ...

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 ...

Firing an employee is a painful process. But delivering the news needn’t turn into a marathon discussion or airing of every management beef about the employee ...

While you probably have rules in place that dictate civil behavior in your workplace, you may not have a clear plan for dealing with the aftermath of an actual violent confrontation. You should ...

A female executive told a jury she hit the glass ceiling after her boss created a new position above her and filled it with a male. She filed suit against her employer, an aircraft manufacturer, and was fired shortly afterward ...

It’s illegal to fire an employee because he or she refuses to engage in illegal conduct. But this is a very narrow exception to the general rule of at-will employment ...

Does your disciplinary policy call for dismissing employees who coerce or intimidate other employees? Understand that firing an employee for violating such rules might make a jury trial more likely ...

You’re not alone if you have struggled to decide how much time off to allow a dsabled eimployee. It’s one of HR’s trickiest issues ...

The 7th U.S. District Court of Appeals upheld damages for a towboat captain fired after he refused to push a load he considered unsafe ...

Illinois mirrors America’s growing diversity in many ways. Today, mosques occupy old churches; co-workers wear burqas and yarmulkes; and some employees request “prayer breaks”  ...

Employees pursuing legal actions against their employers sometimes snoop around to see what documentary “evidence” of wrongdoing they can find around the office. Protect yourself by having a clear policy against such unauthorized document distribution ...

An Ohio appeals court significantly expanded employees’ rights recently when it upheld a fired employee’s right to trial after her employer terminated her because she threatened to talk to her attorney ...

Pregnant employees and applicants are protected by two federal employment laws: the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the FMLA ...

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 ...

Warn your supervisors that if they quickly schedule negative employee reviews—particularly after an employee files a complaint—they could appear to be papering the employee's file in advance of a retaliatory firing, which won't look good in court ...

Infighting among union groups has the labor movement cranking up its organizing efforts to prove a point. Many employers panic when they become union targets, tripping over costly labor relations rules. Follow these steps to avoid becoming a union target ...

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 ...

A new court ruling offers more reason to remind your supervisors to discipline employees based on objective work-based standards. Never punish employees for discussing compensation or job conditions with their co-workers ...

More employers are increasing health premiums for smokers as a way to cut health costs. Such surcharges can trim costs, but implementation mistakes can alienate employees and hurt morale. Use the following tips to design smoker surcharges that reduce the most costs with the least employee backlash ...

One wrong move (especially during the firing process) can send employees running for courthouse. Teach supervisors to avoid unnecessarily angering employees by pointing out the following common mistakes ...

Union membership has fallen dramatically in recent decades, but the labor movement is far from dead. The biggest change: In 2005, the breakaway "Change to Win" movement seized control over one-third of the powerful AFL-CIO's unions. Change to Win lured the unions away by promising to shift the focus from political activism to organizing as many U.S. employers as possible. Is your business next? ...

Following 9/11, the EEOC paid particular attention to employment-discrimination backlash against employees who appeared to be Muslims or of Middle Eastern or South Asian ancestry. But now that effort appears to be broadening. Until recently, the EEOC didn't view job discrimination against Asian-Americans as a widespread problem. But a new survey changed all that ...

While Congress tries to hammer out the biggest immigration law changes in decades, Homeland Security is already cracking down. These developments will likely add new responsibilities and risks to your I-9 and visa practices ...

When a sexual harassment accusation arises, employers often move into crisis mode. But don't try to push the problem off your plate by quickly jettisoning the employee via a kangaroo court ...

Courts, the NLRB and state labor relations boards are becoming more open to employee's claims that they were disciplined in response to their union activities, even when no connection exists. For that reason, it's important to be cognizant of your timing when taking action against a union worker ...

A new court ruling means you'll face less worry about legal liabilities stemming from the psychological impact of firing employees on FMLA leave ...

Recent immigration-related rallies have led many employees, mostly minority ones, to skip work on those days. That action sparked an important question in HR circles: How should employers react to unexcused absences caused by employees' attending political protests? ...

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 ...

Employers often bend over backward to give employees second chances. But when second chances turn into third and fourth chances, you'll  probably lose your patience and send the employee packing. Some employers, however, wrongly believe that they must cite a particularly serious behavior or performance problem as the last straw before termination. As a new ruling shows, that's simply not true ...

If your organization writes employment contracts for key employees, it may be making one costly mistake: unconditionally guaranteeing salary and benefits to employees, even if they commit misconduct that would warrant firing ...

Asking employees to perform even a minimal amount of work while they're out on an FMLA absence could spark a lawsuit. And firing someone for refusing to pirtch in while out on leave almost surely will ...

Pennsylvania employers that want to make sure their employees don't come to work under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs should establish a random drug-testing program. State law makes employees ineligible for unemployment compensation anytime an organization bases its firing on employees' "failure to submit [to] and/or pass a drug test conducted pursuant to an employer's established substance abuse policy" ...

Pennsylvania mirrors America's growing diversity in many ways. Today, mosques occupy old churches; co-workers wear burqas and yarmulkes; and some employees request "prayer breaks." Religious diversity is a reason for celebration in a pluralistic society, but it also presents challenges in the workplace ...

Several statutes protect pregnant employees from discrimination and retaliation. But those laws don't guarantee employees' permanent job security ...

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 police officer recently won a harassment lawsuit against the city of Margate for the city’s response when the U.S. Army Reserve called him to active duty ...

The EEOC recently filed a lawsuit against Barbizon School of Modeling of Atlanta for firing a director five days after she gave birth. The former director, who worked at its Macon location, claims Barbizon terminated her because of her pregnancy ...

When facing a lawsuit, nothing kills your defense faster than ignoring the paperwork that automatically comes with the territory. While many employment lawsuits may be frivolous, make sure you retain counsel ...

The FMLA protects employees from termination for taking leave. But that provision doesn’t kick in until the employee notifies you about the serious health condition (or relative’s health condition) that triggers the leave ...

Execs and supervisors may bristle at criticism from employees and instinctively want to punish offenders. But that apparent insubordination can sometimes be considered protected speech under federal or state law. Knowing what’s protected and what’s not is key ...

What’s a manager to do when faced with conflicting accounts of an argument between employees? An important part of that answer is to resolve it quickly, before the dispute spreads like a cancer through your organization ...

In a unionized workplace, it can be tricky when an arbitrator—while interpreting a collective-bargaining agreement with the union—second-guesses the employer’s decisions ...

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 ...

HR professionals beware: Foul-mouthed managers are trouble, and the best policy is zero tolerance ...

In the process of recruiting, hiring, firing and just running a business, employers accumulate a large amount of personal data from applicants, employees and business associates. Florida law requires employers to take reasonable steps to safeguard such personal data ...

Fighting, horseplay, unreported accidents: You might expect those kinds of antics at the local animal shelter, but not from the staff  ...

Dias Landscapes Corporation of Boynton Beach will pay $150,000 to settle an EEOC lawsuit over firing five Haitian employees and replacing them with Hispanic workers ...

Georgia mirrors America’s growing diversity in many ways. Today, mosques occupy old churches; many workers wear burqas and yarmulkes; and some employees request “prayer breaks.” Religious diversity is a reason for celebration, but it also presents challenges in the workplace ...

A bagel baker at a BP Connect store will proceed with an HIV-discrimination and wrongful-firing suit even though he admitted his firing was justified ...

If your organization’s dress code and grooming policies set different standards for males and females, discuss the policy with your employment law attorney. A new change in state law may prompt the need to remove any sex-specific requirements ...

In Pennsylvania, laid off employees who aren’t legally documented to work in the United States aren’t eligible for unemployment compensation payments ...

While no federal or state law requires you to create and follow a progressive discipline policy, courts often come down hard on employers that promise progressive discipline but fail to deliver it ...

Ohio mirrors America’s growing diversity in many ways. Today, mosques occupy old churches; co-workers wear burqas and yarmulkes; and some employees request “prayer breaks.” Religious diversity is a reason for celebration, but it also presents challenges in the workplace ...

Don’t wait for employees to use the magic words—“sexual harassment”—to begin investigating a complaint. It’s up to you to decipher an employee’s protests to determine if they could fall into that legally dangerous harassment-complaint zone ...

It’s Monday morning, the coffee has yet to be brewed and already a huge problem has dropped onto your desk. An employee left a voice mail saying he has been arrested. He doesn’t say what happened, but the very next message is from a local newspaper reporter asking for details about the employee’s work history ...

A federal district court judge in Texas recently approved a settlement to resolve allegations of national-origin discrimination against QuietFlex Manufacturing Co ...

Terminations are a legal minefield, but you’d think it would be easy to fire a 911 emergency dispatcher who was found sleeping on the job. Not in today’s lawsuit-happy environment...

HR Law 101: The ADA requires employers to walk a fine line between enforcing reasonable workplace safety and behavioral rules and making accommodations for those who are addicted to drugs or alcohol. The law doesn't protect current users of illegal (i.e., “street”) drugs, but it does protect alcoholics and those who’ve shaken their drug addiction sufficiently to no longer be classified as active illegal users ...

HR Law 101: Under the law in most states, if there’s no employment contract, workers are employed on an “at-will” basis. That means employers have the right to fire employees at any time for any reason or no reason, and, conversely, employees have the right to leave the organization at any time ...

HR Law 101: The most reliable way to protect your organization from charges of wrongful discharge is to establish and enforce a system of progressive discipline. Make it clear to all your supervisors that they're expected to abide by your policy ...

HR Law 101: Some supervisors try to skirt the whole issue of firing someone by resorting to constructive discharge. Their logic: If we make an employee’s time at work so intolerable, he or she will choose to resign. That’s an unwise strategy ...

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: The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act of 1988 requires certain employers to give affected employees 60 days’ notice of an impending layoff or plant closing. Employers can be liable for back pay to employees for any portion of the 60-day notice period ...

HR Law 101: Despite all the risks, providing other employers with references about your former employees is a good business practice. If you refused to provide references, eventually you would compromise your ability to find out about applicants you’re considering hiring ...

HR Law 101: Under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act, employees must be 40 or older to file an age-bias lawsuit. But several states (among them Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Oregon) don’t include a minimum age at which legal protection begins ...

HR Law 101: There are two important reasons why you should conduct regular appraisals of your employees’ performance. First, periodic and competent appraisals reduce the opportunity for a discharged employee to claim unfair treatment. The appraisal process alerts employees to what you expect of them, areas in which they're deficient and how they can improve their performance. Second, appraisals constitute documented proof of unsatisfactory performance that will help you justify employment decisions ...

HR Law 101: None of your organization’s policies can compromise your employees’ right to privacy. You can’t obtain information about workers that’s not relevant to their job duties, and there are restrictions on what information about employees you’re allowed to disseminate ...

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 ...

Question: I am the HR Director for a nursing home. I have had several complaints against one of my supervisors from his staff. I have reported a more serious incident to the Administrator and also presented a few other complaints to him. The Administrator confronted the supervisor. The staff has since reported back to me that the supervisor’s attitude has changed toward them, and it makes them uncomfortable and creates an unpleasant working environment.

They do not want me to report him again because of his behavior toward them after the last complaint. And they do not want me to confront their supervisor.

How can I help this department if they do not want me to report him?

I feel that it’s my obligation to these employees to make them feel safe in the workplace and enjoy coming to work each day.  -- Anonymous

HR Law 101: Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Courts are increasingly taking a dim view of employers that don't take decisive action to prevent sexual harassment ...

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 ...

HR Law 101: Workers' compensation insurance provides compensation to employees who are injured or disabled on the job. It pays for medical treatment, loss of wages during a period of disability and compensation for permanent disability or disfigurement ...

Q. In the December 2000 issue, you discussed the topic of employees with body odor. We also have a staff member with body odor so bad that other staff members have complained and even threatened to leave the agency. The employee has been disciplined several times and required to go home without pay until she agrees to comply with the dress code. At what point can we legally terminate her? —A.S., Michigan

Q. We're a nine-physician medical clinic, and we employ a salaried business manager. She makes less than $100,000 but more than $23,660 per year. Her duties include personnel, hiring and firing, and office work. We don't give her comp time or overtime pay. If she takes a partial day off, she must use vacation time (paid time off). In light of the new (FLSA, overtime) rules, are we handling this correctly? —B.B., Missouri

Q. Is it true that under a recently passed law, our company no longer can request copies of picture I.D. and Social Security cards? —A.G., Texas

Q. While on unpaid leave, one of our staffers applied for and was granted workers' compensation. This person has not expressed any interest in returning to work. She may even be working for someone else. Can we terminate her? —A.L., New York

Q. What's the law on letting employees review all their personnel files? Can we prevent it? —J.S., Utah

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. We classified our janitorial supervisor as an exempt employee. She meets some of the qualifications, such as hiring and firing janitorial staff. But when she's on site, she mainly performs janitorial duties. Is she classified correctly? —L.B., Texas

Don't open an employee's' personal mail If you know that a letter or package sent to that person at work is personal (not business related). A recent court ruling shows that you may be opening up a legal mess along with the letter ...

Q. Our office receptionist has a history of being late for work and taking unexcused absences. She's out on FMLA leave to care for her sick mother. Her temporary replacement is doing an outstanding job and always shows up on time. Our CEO has asked if we can keep the new receptionist and tell the other one not to return. Can we? —J.M., New York

Q. An employee in our plant was directed by a replacement line supervisor to use a machine that he wasn't trained to operate. The employee stuck his hand into the machine to clear a jam and was injured. The plant supervisor fired the employee while he was still in the hospital for operating machinery he hadn't been trained on. Does the employee have a right to sue us if he was actually ordered by the line supervisor to do this job? —K.C.

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

Q. What should we keep in personnel files? —G.T., Missouri

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 ...

Employees need more than a hunch that their employer discriminates based on age. They need some kind of proof ...

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 your organization doesn't currently make it clear that it prohibits supervisors from retaliating against employees who complain about discrimination, now's the time to hammer home that message ...

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 ...

If you plan to terminate an employee who recently returned from military duty, you need a clear, business-based reason for your action. You can't fall back on "at-will status" as a reason for firing in such cases ...

Before you classify supervisors as exempt executive employees, make sure you've given them enough authority to make that classification stick. That means delegating true hiring/firing power with the clear understanding that your organization will typically follow the supervisors' recommendations ...

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 ...

Insubordination is a perfectly logical and legal reason to fire an employee. But juries will be suspicious if it looks like one of your supervisors "set up" the employee to give you a reason to terminate ...

When the U.S. Supreme Court opens its new term on Oct. 2, look for a clear theme to the employment-related cases it has chosen to address: the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ...

If you use leased employees, you're not required to manage their FMLA leave. That's the leasing company's responsibility as the person's primary employer ...

Employees whose names people associate with a particular religion, origin or ethnicity can't automatically claim that their name led to discrimination. If that were the case, anyone with such a name would have a leg up on other employees in every discrimination case ...

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 ...

The FMLA doesn’t forbid you to fire employees after they return from FMLA leave, or even while they’re on it. You’re simply prohibited from firing them because they took FMLA leave ...

The U.S. Labor Department revamped the FLSA regulations in 2004 to help employers and employees understand the rules better. But, so far, the HR world has only seen more overtime lawsuits, not less ...

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 ...

Florida mirrors America’s growing diversity in many ways. Today, co-workers wear burqas and yarmulkes, and some employees request prayer breaks. Religious diversity is a reason for celebration, but it also presents workplace challenges. Religious discrimination claims filed with the EEOC more than doubled in the past year ...

Morgan Stanley won the latest round in its high-profile battle with IT employee Arthur Riel, who was fired for sharing e-mails that revealed questionable management practices at the firm ...

Florida’s population is the oldest in the United States. So perhaps it comes as no surprise that older workers in the state are becoming increasingly litigious in filing Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) lawsuits ...

When you know it’s time to discharge an employee, don’t let excessive fear of a lawsuit immobilize you. The fact is, employers do make mistakes, but not all their errors lead to liability ...

For many employers, absenteeism is a constant problem. You know you must give employees some slack, especially for family and medical emergencies and to accommodate disabilities that sometimes flare up. But, to make sure the work gets done, you need to know who’s going to show up and who isn’t ...

The Florida Highway Patrol’s highest-ranking female officer has filed a gender-discrimination suit against the department for firing her last year ...

That dedicated employee working through her lunch period, even though she’s clocked out, could be a Florida employer’s biggest future liability ...

The Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA) prohibits retaliation against New Jersey employees who bring to light illegal or unethical workplace practices ...

HR Law 101: Nowadays, most organizations conduct exit interviews with departing employees to determine why they’ve resigned. Exit interviews can be a great HR tool, but you have to know what questions to ask and, at the same time, what questions to avoid for legal reasons ...

HR Law 101: When a new hire comes on board, you must determine whether to classify him or her as exempt or nonexempt under the FLSA. The key consideration: Exempt workers aren’t eligible for overtime pay. Rather, they’re paid for the job they do, not the hours they keep ...

HR Law 101:  OSHA's special whistle-blower program is designed to protect workers who report employer wrongdoing or dangerous conditions. Under the program, employers may not retaliate or discriminate against workers who file complaints with OSHA ...

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 ...

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 ...

Because Pennsylvania takes jury duty seriously, the legislature passed a law prohibiting most employers from retaliating against or punishing employees who become jurors. The law doesn’t require employers to compensate employees for jury duty, but it clearly states that employers can’t interfere with employees’ fulfillment of their civic duty ...

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 ...

Under the New York Human Rights Law (NYHRL), it’s illegal to subject people to differential treatment based on age, race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orientation, military status, sex, disability, predisposing genetic characteristics or marital status ...

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 ...

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 ...

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

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 ...

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 ...

Here's a primer on what sexual harassment is and how to react when you see it.

1. Keep receipts, not a list 2. No deduction for 'common' products

Question: I manage several administrative support assistants in an executive, senior management environment. One of the assistants has difficulty separating emotions from her job duties. She internalizes many business decisions either as personal attacks on her or reminiscent of personal relationships not related to work. Her feelings factor into many of her business decisions. As you can imagine, it is difficult to manage her performance.

Her interpersonal relationships with her co-workers and me are occaisionally strained. For lack of a better word, she is almost a bullying personality and is frequently moody. She is making minor mistakes on a more frequent basis, and appears to increasingly resent my corrections of them.

When confronted about her performance, she appears willing to accept and make changes, but is very emotional (crying) during these meetings. And as each issue corrects itself, it seems another one appears.

What is the message I am not understanding from her? What am I not doing that I need to do? How can this situation be corrected?  -- Anonymous

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

If you're fed up with an employee's conduct, consider entering into a "last-chance agreement" with the worker before cutting him or her loose.

Now's a good time to carefully review your policy on whether employees receive pay for unused vacation time when they depart your organization.

 Treat failure as temporary setback.

A recent case reminds employers that it's illegal to retaliate against workers who participate in any type of workplace investigation.

The federal government launched a high-profile raid last month of 21 Wal-Mart stores, resulting in more than 250 arrests of undocumented workers and a heap of trouble for the company.

It's not unusual for employers to receive "no match" letters from the Social Security Administration (SSA) stating there is a discrepancy ...