Discrimination and Harassment
Discrimination and harassment claims often increase in a down economy. Learn the proper techniques for conducing proper workplace harassment investigations, providing sexual harassment training, and more to reduce claims of employment discrimination and preventing sexual harassment in the workplace.
Matthews-based retailer Family Dollar is the latest employer to take up the EEOC’s offer to mediate its employment disputes. It has signed an agreement—known as a National Universal Agreement to Mediate (UAM)—that allows employers to use EEOC mediators to informally resolve discrimination complaints through alternative dispute resolution.
Courts don’t tolerate religious harassment, but they won’t punish an employer for occasional lapses in good sense, either. That’s the lesson of the following case.
If a co-worker, supervisor or customer sexually assaults an employee and the police are called in, the employer must still take reasonable steps to stop the harassment and prevent another assault. It’s not enough to rely on the police to take care of the problem.
Resolve every sexual harassment complaint ASAP. That way, it won’t come back to haunt you.
The best defense against any sort of discrimination claim is to treat every employee the same.
Smart employers try to fix discrimination and harassment problems right away. But sometimes the complaining employee wants more than the employer is willing to give and simply gets angry. If anger turns into insubordination, you can discipline without fear of losing a lawsuit.
Asheboro-based BJ Con/Sew will pay $75,000 to settle an EEOC national-origin harassment lawsuit filed on behalf of a former employee who says he endured almost daily ethnic slurs for two years.
Not everyone is cut out to be a boss. Some employees just can’t direct others or criticize their work. If a supervisor can’t—or won’t—do his job, termination may be inevitable.
When an employee tells her supervisor she has a disability that makes it hard for her to get to work on time, it’s critical to factor that into any decision to apply a no-fault tardiness policy. Refusing to do so may be disability discrimination.
Here’s a novel approach for employers falsely accused of discrimination in the press. If you win the discrimination case, you may be able to sue the employee for defamation.
