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Employment Law

Can we use personal e-mails we discovered to defend against former employee’s lawsuit?

05/11/2010
Q. After a recently terminated employee sued our company for discrimination, we undertook a forensic examination of her work-issued laptop. We found, saved in the cache of the web browser, e-mails she sent to her attorney from her web-based, personal and private e-mail account. Can we use these e-mails in the lawsuit?

What must we do to accommodate a nursing mother in our workplace?

05/11/2010
Q. One of our employees just returned from maternity leave and is now requesting that we accommodate her need to pump breast milk during the workday. Do we have to make this accommodation?

How does the EEOC process work?

05/11/2010
Q. My company just received notice that an employee filed a discrimination charge against us with the EEOC. What happens now?

When competition might come from within, keep employees honest

05/11/2010
It’s a situation that happens more often than you might think: An employer finds out that one of its employees is preparing to leave and set up her own shop. But is the employer handcuffed, unable to do anything about the upstart competitor because this employee didn’t sign a noncompetition agreement?

Cintas reaches settlement in employee’s accidental death

05/11/2010

Cincinnati-based uniform company Cintas will pay an employee’s widow for her husband’s workplace death. Eleazar Torres-Gomez was killed at the firm’s Tulsa, Okla., plant on March 6, 2007, when he fell into a dryer while trying to clear a conveyor belt jammed with wet laundry.

Sen. Brown sponsors bill to end employee misclassification

05/11/2010
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is joining the U.S. Department of Labor and the IRS in going after employers that improperly classify workers as independent contractors. Brown is tackling the issue from the legislative side, co-sponsoring the Employee Misclassification Prevention Act (EMPA).

Does Roto-Rooter send women’s careers down the drain?

05/11/2010

Debra Ring thought her chances for advancement at Roto-Rooter were just a pipe dream, and now she’s suing the national plumbing chain. The Cincinnati woman, who alleges that Roto-Rooter has a “tangible glass ceiling” that limits advancement for women, has filed a class-action lawsuit claiming the company systematically discriminates against women.

Choose one when suing: bias or wrongful termination

05/11/2010
Good news for employers: When an Ohio employee sues for alleged discrimination under state, federal or local anti-discrimination laws, he can’t also add claims that he was wrongly terminated in violation of public policy. The other laws are his sole remedy.

Courts give employers benefit of doubt: Not all ‘unfair’ treatment is discrimination

05/11/2010
Courts don’t have time, resources or inclination to micromanage employers. Unless an employee can show she has been treated unfairly for an illegal reason like age discrimination, not every “unfair” decision will end in a successful lawsuit. Consider what happened in one recent case.

Words no supervisors should ever utter: ‘troublemaker’ and ‘get rid of’

05/11/2010
There is no good reason for any manager or executive to ever use the term “troublemaker” or the phrase “get rid of” in the workplace. No matter whom the comments are directed at, they can easily be interpreted as an excuse for some form of discrimination.