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Discrimination / Harassment

Tell managers: Unless you have notes, you can’t terminate

04/08/2008
The quickest way for an employer to get into big trouble is to retaliate against an employee who files a discrimination charge. Any negative employment action after the charge is filed may mean an additional lawsuit. Instruct managers to document any alleged poor performance—and make sure they use only objective, concrete measures …

The Cost of Failing to Change: Echoes From the ‘Boom-Boom Room’

04/08/2008
Investment bank Smith Barney, a division of Citicorp, confirmed last week that it agreed to pay $33 million to about 2,500 current and female brokers to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit. The $33 million is in addition to the $18 million the firm paid to settle a 1997 discrimination lawsuit alleging that female brokers were sexually harassed in the brokerage’s infamous "boom-boom room" …

Provide real chance to weigh signing separation agreement

04/08/2008
To make a severance agreement involving older workers stick, employers have to follow the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA). The law prohibits releases of Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) claims unless the agreement meets very specific requirements …

Older worker’s performance falling? Document the decline before discharge

04/08/2008
It almost never looks good in court when an employee who has been with the company for decades suddenly loses his job. For many potential jurors, that smacks of age discrimination even before they’ve heard any testimony. That’s one reason to try to get age cases dismissed long before a jury gets a chance to impose its judgment …

Burnsville hospital prevails in EEOC discrimination suit

04/08/2008
Sheila Smith, a former transport aide in the emergency room at Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville, filed an EEOC lawsuit alleging she suffered discrimination and retaliation because she is black. The court found that while the comments made about her  were “abhorrent,” they were made by co-workers, not supervisors, and did not rise to the level of creating a hostile work environment …

Charging falsification? Make sure you can back up claim

04/07/2008
Employees who don’t follow company rules should be disciplined and possibly terminated. But employers must make sure they can back up their claims. Otherwise, they may face lawsuits if the fired employees belong to a protected class …

Spotty promotion, training systems? Prepare for class action

04/07/2008
The rise of class actions makes it essential for HR professionals to explore exactly how their companies dole out training and promotion opportunities. If individual supervisors or managers have too much discretion, there may be trouble ahead. An “old boy” network may be alive and well …

Supersensitive employees? Don’t treat with kid gloves

04/07/2008
Don’t let fear of litigation allow one or two supersensitive employees to squash reasonable criticism and destroy workplace morale. Take, for example, an employee who happens to be a member of a protected class (e.g., race, gender or disability) and always seems to believe that supervisors are singling him out …

Quell the rumor mill while internal investigations progress

04/07/2008
Do you have safeguards to protect confidentiality while you conduct internal investigations of sexual harassment and other employee complaints? If not, you should. If an employer is careless and allows word of the allegations to get out to people who have no reason to know about them, the employer may face defamation claims …

Inequitably reducing or denying bonus may be retaliation

04/01/2008
As employers, we would like to think employees would be grateful for bonuses no matter the amount. But employees may perceive a smaller than expected bonus (or a bonus denied) as retaliation for engaging in protected activity …