Discipline / Investigations

Union president in Longview sentenced for embezzlement

12/16/2013

A federal judge has sentenced the former president of GMP Allied Workers Local 284 to 12 months and one day in prison after he pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges. The union official admitted taking $124,181 from the Longview-based local between 2000 and 2011.

Fired for 1st violation? Better explain why

12/13/2013

There’s a first time for everything—including firing someone for violating a rule. But that may spell trouble if other employees weren’t punished for breaking the same rule.

Same misconduct warrants same punishment

12/13/2013

You might assume that firing an employee for breaking a safety rule would be “safe” from judicial criticism. But if you don’t punish all workers equally for violating the same rule, you may run into trouble if the employee can show that others outside his protected class weren’t punished as severely.

What steps should we take to ensure supervisors issue consistent discipline?

12/02/2013

Q. We are having a hard time keeping discipline consistent between supervisors. To promote consistency, upper management would like to implement a new discipline policy setting out what disciplinary steps should be followed. Do you recommend this?

Warn employees: Text messages may be evidence

12/02/2013

Text messages make communication easy and convenient, but casual comments dashed off electronically may come back to haunt you. That’s why you should remind employees that texts should be composed with the same careful deliberation as letters and memos.

You should ban all racial slurs at work, but hold supervisors to a higher standard

11/19/2013

When it comes to the use of racial or other patently offensive slurs, it makes a difference who does the talking and how often. Courts don’t tolerate slurs when a supervisor is responsible, but cut employers more slack when it’s a co-worker speaking.

When employees violate anti-violence policy, make sure everyone is disciplined equally

10/29/2013

Nothing will get you in trouble faster than discipline that’s harsher for members of some classes than others. That’s especially true in cases where someone has been accused of violating anti-violence policies.

Make good-faith effort to root out racism

10/29/2013

There’s only so much you can do to prevent a racially hostile work environment. Fortunately, courts understand those limitations and won’t hold it against you—provided you acted in good faith to stop harassment.

Use progressive discipline system to build documentation that justifies termination

10/10/2013

Progressive discipline systems force supervisors to follow the steps in the process, which helps employers document what happened and when. That can come in handy if the employee files an EEOC complaint and then claims she was fired for doing so.

Good faith is good enough for discipline