• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Discipline / Investigations

Worker lost $700: Can we make him pay it back?

08/02/2011
When an employee loses company property or money, what recourse do employers have to recoup their loss? It depends on the applicable state wage law … and on whether you believe the “loss” was really accidental.

Thin-skinned employee or bully boss? Trust your HR instincts to decide who’s right

08/02/2011

HR professionals must often make judgment calls about who is telling the truth. In fact, just about every workplace investigation requires assessing the credibility of employees, co-workers and managers who disagree about what happened. Trust your gut — and follow these four guidelines for figuring out who’s right.

What should we do? We suspect string of workplace injuries might be workers’ comp fraud

08/01/2011
Q. We’ve had an exceptional number of suspicious injuries at work so far this year. We don’t want to jump to conclusions, but how can we determine if these injuries are part of a workers’ comp insurance fraud scheme?

Must we make employees available to EEOC investigators?

08/01/2011
Q. A former employee recently filed an EEOC complaint against our company alleging race discrimination. As part of its investigation, the agency will be coming to our offices to interview employees. Do I have to make the employees available? As the HR director, should I sit in on the employee interviews?

On the emotional edge: 4 tips for responding to employee rants

07/29/2011

Disciplinary and termination meetings are emotionally charged events that carry the potential for nasty words, hurt feelings and even legal troubles. You never know how employees will respond. But you need to be prepared for anything. Four do’s and don’ts to defuse rants and avoid lawsuits:

Discipline after testimony can be retaliation

07/22/2011
Reacting angrily to employee litigation can backfire. Filing a lawsuit is a protected activity, and sudden discipline following legal action is dangerous.

Did deputy go to wing joint for breasts and thighs?

07/22/2011
The EEOC is suing Hurricane Grill and Wings in Royal Palm Beach after female employees detailed persistent sexual harassment by a local deputy sheriff.

Employer’s win in court shows peril of ignoring harassment

07/22/2011

It is generally agreed that anti-discrimination laws don’t create a general code requiring workplace civility. Harassment lawsuits won’t normally fly unless the abuse is objectively and subjectively severe or pervasive enough to alter the terms and conditions of one’s employment. A recent case, Williams v. CSX Transp. Co., illustrates these principles in action.

When accused harasser says he was harassed, weigh everyone’s credibility–and motive for lying

07/15/2011

It can and does happen when an employee complains that she has been sexually harassed: In the course of the ensuing internal investigation, the alleged harasser says that, in fact, he was harassed—and the alleged victim was the real harasser. What should you do?

Give oral reprimands that serve a purpose

06/30/2011
You already know to scold employees in private. You don’t want to embarrass them at the same time that you’re criticizing some aspect of their performance. But reprimanding in private doesn’t excuse you from speaking diplomatically.