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Discrimination / Harassment

Dress codes: Strip away discrimination, ‘uniform’ dangers

12/01/2002
If your business is image-driven, now’s the time to take a closer look at how you regulate employee appearance. Reason: An increasing number of lawsuits are successfully challenging employers’ dress-code policies. …

Managers: Don’t sit on harassment claim, notify designated person

11/01/2002
When does a company officially “know” of a harassment complaint? It’s not always when the complaint is lodged with the designated person in your reporting procedures. If your lower-level managers get …

Court opens door wider to sexual-orientation lawsuits

11/01/2002
In what gay-rights groups are calling a landmark decision, a federal appeals court has said that homosexuals can use federal civil rights laws to sue for alleged harassment. In the …

Retaliation threat doesn’t erase time limit for filing lawsuit

11/01/2002
Wal-Mart employee Stephanie Beckel complained to a general manager that her supervisor was sexually harassing her. When the general manager told her not to discuss the matter with anyone but himself …

Less prestigious job leads to constructive discharge

11/01/2002
After a top-performing African-American server at Denny’s was transferred to a different location, the restaurant unexpectedly reassigned her to busing tables. She walked off the job and sued, alleging that she …

Religious protections don’t include veganism

11/01/2002
A California computer worker was denied a job in a pharmaceutical factory because he refused to take a required mumps shot. He refused because the vaccine included material from chicken embryos …

Regulating off-duty conduct: How far can you go?

11/01/2002
Say you find out that your sales manager is dating the marketing director of your biggest competitor. Or that your cashier has a bottle-of-scotch-a-day drinking habit after work. Can you fire …

Equal Pay Act: Erase the sex from your pay grades

11/01/2002
THE LAW. The Equal Pay Act (EPA) of 1963 prohibits employers from dishing out different wages or bene-fits on the basis of gender for “equal work on jobs (requiring) equal skill, …

Worker can’t sue for job switch if you have legitimate reasons

10/01/2002
Barbara Policastro was a Northwest Airlines’ sales rep whose territory covered Cincinnati, where she lived. She also had to spend about five days a month servicing cities in northern Kentucky about …

Employee/contractor question hinges on employer control

10/01/2002
Katherine Kerr, a television stage manager, worked on a free-lance basis for a production company, which provided broadcast personnel to TV stations. After a few years on the job, the production …