• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Employment Law

What happens if we fail to provide COBRA notice upon termination?

12/24/2008

Q. What kinds of penalties or liability does an employer face if it fails to provide notice of COBRA coverage upon termination of an employee?

What are the risks of continuing a no-fault attendance policy?

12/24/2008

Q. Our company’s attendance policy calls for issuing a warning when an employee has three absences. Five absences result in a suspension, and seven absences result in termination. Can we continue this policy?

Track whom you discipline to avoid litigation

12/24/2008

Employees who are fired after breaking work rules often allege that they were targeted because of some protected characteristic like gender, age, race or ethnicity. The best way to counter such claims is to know beforehand whether your organization is being tougher on some employees who belong to a protected class while letting others slide.

Court not sold that SEPTA is ‘arm of the state’

12/24/2008

A bus driver recently sued the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), claiming she and all others like her had been paid less than they were entitled to. SEPTA tried to get out of the lawsuit by saying it was an arm of the state, and therefore immune from Fair Labor Standards Act claims.

N.J.’s pension strategy: ‘Promise to pay up later, OK?’

12/24/2008

Tough times call for tough measures. To cope with the effects of the state’s $1.2 billion budget shortfall on its pension obligations, Gov. Jon Corzine has suggested a time-honored, if not terribly innovative, remedy: an IOU.

Even if offer is for ‘at-will’ job, beware making promises you’re not prepared to keep

12/24/2008

Before you make a solid job offer and induce an applicant to make major changes in order to accept the job, consider this: If you end up not being able to follow through on the offer, you may end up sued for breach of promise—in legal terms, called promissory estoppel

Winning unemployment case doesn’t let you off the hook for wrongful discharge

12/24/2008

Many employers carefully prepare for unemployment compensation hearings, especially if the employee was fired for misconduct. Then, having proven that the employee was fired for some wrongful act, they naively conclude that the same employee can’t turn around and sue them for wrongful discharge.

Prepare for the worst: Public employees can sue even for being suspended

12/24/2008

Government employees frequently have a constitutional right to notice and some sort of a hearing before losing their jobs. And according to a recent federal appeals court decision, that right sometimes extends to a suspension or some other discipline that stops short of termination.

No free attorneys for employees who sue

12/24/2008

If anything would add to the avalanche of employment suits already burying employers in litigation, it would be providing free legal counsel to employees who sue. Fortunately, at least one federal court hearing a New Jersey case has nixed the idea.

NJLAD allows personal liability for aiding and abetting

12/24/2008

Supervisors and managers, take note: You may be personally liable for aiding and abetting discrimination that is illegal under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.