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Discrimination / Harassment

Pre-employment testing: Know the legal limits

08/01/2003
THE LAW. Pre-employment tests are an effective tool to discover applicant’s skills or abilities that can’t be gleaned from an application or interview. And …

Different vacation policies are legal if done fairly

08/01/2003

Q. We are rewriting our vacation pay policy. Currently, we have two categories of hourly employees. Can we offer 10 vacation days after two years to some employees and five days for the same period to other employees? Can we offer different benefits to salaried and hourly employees? —S.P., Washington

Take extra anti-harassment steps with younger workers

08/01/2003
Issue: Courts may hold your harassment-prevention efforts to a higher standard when young workers are involved.
Risk: Big court judgments, ugly PR and damaged morale …

If workers’ ‘free speech’ threatens others, you can ban it

08/01/2003
Issue: Employees wrongly believe the First Amendment protects their comments at work.
Risk: You don’t need to put up with employees who claim their harassment or bias is just “free …

Mentioning worker’s body odor isn’t discriminatory

08/01/2003
A Muslim IT manager sued for national-origin discrimination, claiming that he was fired for what his supervisor considered poor personal hygiene, not poor performance. His evidence: The supervisor had confronted him …

Pursue harassment claims, even if complaining worker backs off

07/01/2003
You know to investigate harassment complaints when they land on your desk. But what if the complaining employee shows a lack of interest in her initial complaint, …

Multistate businesses: Standardize your policies and supervisor training

07/01/2003
If your company has policies on job transfers or resignations (and it should), make sure they are clearly articulated and strictly followed by managers …

Title VII: Employees who sue for bias have easier path to victory.

07/01/2003
In a decision that elevates your legal risk in discrimination cases, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that employees no longer need to show direct evidence …

Blonde hair won’t earn employees Title VII proctection.

07/01/2003
A female worker with blonde hair sued her employer, claiming that her boss’s comments about her tresses were sexist and sexual. A district court ruled that the comments, …

Mentioning employees’ body odor isn’t discriminatory.

07/01/2003
A Muslim IT manager sued for national origin bias, claiming that his supervisor’s comments about his personal hygiene, not performance problems, were the true cause …