09/02/2010
A coalition of more than 1,000 business associations and chambers of commerce called on Congress last month to repeal a burdensome new reporting mandate that was buried in the new health care reform law. Starting in 2012, businesses would be required to file a 1099 Form each time they spend more than $600 a year to buy goods or services from another company.
|
09/01/2010
Hilary Koprowski, the Polish-born developer of the precursor to Albert Sabin’s oral polio vaccine, has sued Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University Hospital after it shut down his research lab. The hospital claims Koprowski’s lab doesn’t bring in enough grant money to fund its operation.
|
09/01/2010
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law July 21, mainly affects public companies and employers in the financial sector. It sets new protections for employees who engage in whistle-blowing, and mandates more diversity in the financial sector and new restrictions on executive pay.
|
08/31/2010
The Supreme Court may rule on the pay discrimination lawsuit everyone is watching. Walmart last week asked the High Court to overturn a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in April that allowed a class-action suit alleging widespread discrimination against women to proceed. At stake: $1 billion or more.
|
08/31/2010
Q. “Are there any legal issues with having some of our full-time permanent employees also having contracts to do subcontractor work (1099) for the same place they are employed?" -- S.M., Wisconsin
|
08/31/2010
The Jury Systems Improvement Act, a federal law, says employers can be held liable for terminating or intimidating employees because of their service on a federal jury. Most states also set their own rules regarding employee leave for state and local jury duty. Bottom line: Draft a policy that explains leave protections for jury service in both federal and state courts.
|
08/31/2010
Many employers have a standard policy that requires employees returning from sick leave to prove that they’re fit for work. If you have such a policy—and you apply it consistently—you can also require employees who use FMLA leave to provide the same certifications.
|
08/27/2010
Safelite Glass’ windshield replacement operation in Enfield faces charges it failed to stop an HR manager from sexually harassing a female employee.
|
08/27/2010
A Jehovah’s Witness was fired from her job at a Belk department store in Raleigh after she refused to wear a Santa hat while wrapping Christmas gifts. She told her supervisors that wearing the Santa hat would violate her religious beliefs. The EEOC asserts Belk violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by refusing to accommodate her religious beliefs.
|
08/27/2010
The EEOC has filed sexual harassment and retaliatory discharge complaints against Mount Airy-based Mountain River Trucking after what an employee says was nearly daily sexual harassment by the company’s owner.
|
08/27/2010
In North Carolina, union employees have to use their contracts to pursue claims they were unfairly fired. They can’t do what at-will employees can do—sue for wrongful termination.
|
08/27/2010
Sometimes, you don’t know how lousy an employee was until he or she is gone. That may be when you find out about missing work, or even missing money. Or you may discover that the employee was essentially dishonest. If that’s the fact, promptly document what you discovered—just in case there is a later lawsuit.
|
08/27/2010
Managers, supervisors and HR professionals, beware: Courts are cracking down on employers that punish employees who serve in the military. One way is by clarifying that those who participate in hiring and firing decisions may be held personally liable for violating USERRA.
|
08/27/2010
Unfortunately for employers, the EEOC can spend as much time on the investigation as it wants without losing the right to sue. That’s because there is technically no statute of limitations on the commission’s actions. But that doesn’t mean employers are powerless. Fortunately, there is a legal doctrine employers can use when the EEOC waits and waits to initiate litigation.
|
08/27/2010
Employees who sue for discrimination usually have to show they were punished more harshly than other employees outside their protected class. Counter such claims with specifics. While you may have punished 10 employees this year for breaking the same rule, chances are that each case was unique—and that you made the punishment fit the crime. That’s fine.
|