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Employment Law

Court: Online gripe about work conditions isn’t defamation

06/26/2009

After the Record of Hackensack interviewed Ed Doherty, president of Doherty Enterprises, which owns about 80 Applebee’s restaurants in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, the paper posted the article online. The paper quoted Doherty as saying he treats employees “with dignity and respect” … and that’s where the trouble began.

Court finds NJLAD age discrimination loophole

06/26/2009

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination makes age discrimination illegal, but it also says “nothing herein shall be construed to bar an employer from refusing to accept for employment or to promote any person over 70 years of age.” Now a court has decided that exception doesn’t apply to continuing employment.

Exonerated, gone anyway: You can independently assess misconduct

06/26/2009

A New Jersey appeals court has upheld the termination of an employee even though a government agency cleared him of the alleged misconduct that led to his dismissal. That means employers still have the right to make their own decisions about conduct and what they believe happened.

Use ‘fresh-start’ policy to cut retaliation risk

06/26/2009

It often makes sense to give a fresh start to a poorly performing employee who has been complaining about discrimination. Place her in another position with a new supervisor, new co-workers and a clean disciplinary record. Then if her workplace problems persist, you can terminate her without worrying about retaliation claims.

Remind managers: Keep stereotypes to yourself

06/26/2009

Here’s a simple rule of thumb: Managers and supervisors should never comment on any aspect of an employee’s sexuality, the ability of men and women to get along or be managed by the other sex, or the relative age of employees. It’s too easy for employees to misinterpret those comments—leading to an expensive lawsuit.

When dealing with sexual harassment, fix the problem once and for all

06/26/2009

When an alleged sexual harasser is a supervisor, employers aren’t liable if there was no tangible employment action taken—the harassed employee wasn’t fired, demoted or otherwise punished—and the harassment was stopped promptly. But it doesn’t always work out so neatly in larger organizations.

Rest easier: Harassment won’t lead to lawsuit for negligence and harassment

06/26/2009

Here’s a bit of good news: Employees who believe that their co-workers have discriminated against them or harassed them on account of their protected characteristics can’t sue under both Title VII and state tort laws. That takes away one potentially expensive avenue for recovering damages.

Employee is her own lawyer? You can pursue sanctions

06/26/2009

When disgruntled applicants or former employees sue employers, they sometimes represent themselves in court. Even though such cases may lack merit, that doesn’t mean they won’t wind up costing employers big bucks to defend. But employers have a way to dissuade such pro se litigants from pursuing frivolous lawsuits.

Treating everyone equally makes good business sense

06/26/2009

An employee who belongs to a protected class can win a discrimination lawsuit if she shows that a similarly situated co-worker who doesn’t belong to the same protected class got more lenient treatment than she did for the same rule violation or behavior. Therefore, be prepared to show in every case that you treated all employees equally.

Statesville Compare Foods settles bias claim with EEOC

06/26/2009

For the second time in a year, a North Carolina Compare Foods store has settled discrimination charges with the EEOC. As in the earlier case, this one—involving a store in Statesville—involved accusations that workers had been fired because they weren’t Hispanic.