01/31/2012
An employee may request FMLA leave after the decision has been made to terminate her but before finding out she’s about to lose her job. Employers that can prove they made the firing decision earlier won’t lose an FMLA failure-to-reinstate lawsuit.
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01/31/2012
The former general manager of Foxworth-Galbraith Lumber in Fort Worth is suing the company for age discrimination, claiming he was fired at the age of 55 and replaced by a 38-year-old man.
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01/31/2012
Employees who sue for discrimination have to prove they are members of a protected class, were qualified for the position they held, were terminated or subjected to another adverse action and were treated less favorably than employees outside their protected class. Employers that can show the employee was insubordinate can quickly win such cases.
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01/27/2012
Violence in the workplace is a harsh reality, but employers must provide a safe work environment. That may mean terminating employees who threaten other employees or get into fights.
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01/20/2012
Los Angeles clothing manufacturer and retailer American Apparel has agreed to settle an ADA lawsuit filed by a former employee who was fired while out on medical leave.
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01/20/2012
Some supervisors may be secretly biased against members of a particular protected class—something that may be hard to tell until it’s too late. And if a bigoted boss decides to get rid of a subordinate by telling HR the employee is a poor performer, rubber-stamping that decision can mean losing a discrimination lawsuit.
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01/18/2012
Make this a mantra in your organization: The same person who hired an employee should be the one to fire him if necessary. Here’s why:
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01/13/2012
How much your organization pays for unemployment insurance is based, in part, on how many of your former employees have successfully filed claims against you. Understanding who is eligible for unemployment benefits and who isn’t can go a long way toward keeping insurance rates low. It starts with how you terminate an employee.
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01/12/2012
Q. We recently fired an employee for misconduct. She now claims we have to buy out all the vacation time she had not used. Do we have a legal obligation to pay her for accrued and unused vacation time?
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01/12/2012
Some employees facing criticism will own up to the problem and work to improve. Others simply refuse to recognize that their performance is subpar or contributing to discord in the workplace. Either way, it’s worth at least extending to the employee a chance to improve and keep his job—after you have documented the nature of the problem.
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01/12/2012
Here’s something to remember the next time you agonize over discharging an employee for breaking a rule: While you should treat all employees honestly, you don’t have to conduct a mini trial to determine “guilt.” It’s enough to believe you had a legitimate reason to fire the employee—even if it later turns out you were wrong.
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01/12/2012
Some employees might welcome a transfer from a physically challenging job to a more sedentary one. But for someone who liked the old job and doesn’t feel qualified for the new one, the move could feel like retaliation.
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01/10/2012
Line managers can’t fly solo when it’s time to fire a worker.
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01/09/2012
Courts don’t want to second-guess employers unless they feel they have no alternative. When an employee charges discrimination based on different treatment because he belongs to a protected class, the court first looks at the employer’s rules and tries to see if they have been enforced consistently.
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01/09/2012
Ignoring a discrimination complaint can set in motion an unstoppable litigation train wreck. That’s especially true if you fail to investigate a boss who ends up retaliating against the complaining employee.
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