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
How much your organization pays for unemployment insurance is based, in part, on how many 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.
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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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01/25/2012
Many employers wrongly assume that they can automatically terminate an employee once she used up her 12-week entitlement of FMLA leave. Such a policy could spell trouble.
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01/25/2012
Sometimes, layoffs are inevitable … and they’re always a legal minefield. Get it wrong and your attorneys’ fees can easily exceed the labor costs you hoped to save. Decide who should go in much the same way you decide who to hire. Look at the jobs that will survive and select the employees who best fit those jobs.
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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
Employees don’t have forever to sue for wrongful termination—and the clock may start ticking even before their last day on the job. That can mean all the difference in court.
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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
Minneapolis-based grocery chain Supervalu faces a lawsuit from a former employee at a distribution center in Pennsylvania. Long-time employee Terri Wolfinger claims the company changed the lifting requirements in her job description to prevent her from returning to work after she injured her arm.
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01/12/2012
Employees who quit usually aren’t eligible for unemployment compensation. Only those who quit for “a good reason caused by their employer” are eligible for benefits.
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