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Employment Law

Wage-and-Hour lawsuits against Pilgrim’s Pride consolidated

04/01/2008
Lawsuits filed on behalf of workers at Pilgrim’s Pride poultry processing plants in North Carolina and 10 other states have been consolidated and moved to a federal court …

Employment contracts in North Carolina: What you need to know

04/01/2008
Employers and employees often wonder about the benefits and drawbacks of employment contracts. Most employees do not have employment contracts. However, contracts may be appropriate for company officers, management employees, salespeople and key employees. Who’s right for an employment contract? …

Defending ourselves in small claims court

04/01/2008
Q. A former employee has filed a claim against our company in small claims court for unpaid wages. Can the HR manager handle this, or must we hire a lawyer? …

Who pays for pre-Employment medical exams?

04/01/2008
Q. We require new employees to undergo pre-employment medical exams. May we require a new employee to cover the cost of the exam? We have 35 employees …

Are noncompete agreements enforceable in the medical profession?

04/01/2008
Q. I run a physician’s group, and one of our new doctors has informed me that a noncompetition agreement for physicians is unenforceable in North Carolina. Is that true? …

Demand concrete evidence of employee’s disability

04/01/2008
Sometimes employees look for ways to get out of performing work they find unpleasant. Some play the disability card—asking for tasks to be removed from their job descriptions as reasonable ADA accommodations. Before you give in and assign duties to more cooperative employees, decide whether the employee in question really is disabled …

Indiana court losing patience with inconsistent enforcement of no-Call policies

04/01/2008
To manage your workload, you need to know whether employees will show up for work. To avoid fraudulent call-offs, you may even require a personal call. But unless you are already suspicious—or have had problems with that particular employee abusing the system before—you shouldn’t single out one employee for discipline …

You can require an obviously troubled employee to get help

04/01/2008
If you have an employee who obviously needs psychiatric intervention, you can demand he get outside help—if you can show his behavior is job-related and may affect his ability to do his job or do it safely …

St. Joseph County not liable for $56.5 million verdict

04/01/2008
St. Joseph County will not have to pay a $56.5 million verdict levied against two former prison guards responsible for the death of a man in their custody. Federal jurors awarded $29 million in compensatory damages and $27.5 million in punitive damages to the family of Christopher Moreland, who died after being arrested for drunk driving in 1997 …

New state law supports breastfeeding mothers

04/01/2008
Gov. Mitch Daniels has signed into law a new bill protecting breastfeeding mothers at work. The law, authored by state Sen. Vi Simpson, requires businesses with 25 or more employees to make a reasonable effort to provide a private place for mothers to express breast milk …