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Employment Law

GPS to track employees

01/01/2008

Q. I would like to install GPS tracking devices in company-owned vehicles to track my employees’ whereabouts and determine whether they are making effective use of company time. I would prefer not to notify my employees that I will be installing these devices. Would I subject my company to any liability for violating our employees’ right to privacy if I take this step? …

Different grooming rules for different employees are legal

01/01/2008

Tattoos, body piercings, wildly colored hair—these days it seems as if just about anything goes in the workplace. Employers that want some sense of decorum at work may feel as though insisting on a dress code marks them as dinosaurs. Rest assured, however, that you can insist on a reasonable dress and grooming code …

Employers—Not employees—Choose ADA accommodation

01/01/2008

Sometimes disabled employees and their employers have different views of the accommodations needed to do their jobs. Fortunately, it’s up to the employer, not the employee, to pick the accommodation. Simply put, the employee isn’t the master of the accommodation—the employer is …

Following baseless complaint, ensure later discipline is legit

01/01/2008

Sometimes employees who know they are in trouble at work will try to set up lawsuits. That way, they reason, if they get fired, they can sue for “retaliation.” It’s up to HR to ferret out such sneaky tricks and prevent those lawsuits. The best way is to make absolutely sure that you can justify any eventual discipline …

Condition worthy of FMLA leave might not be ADA disability

01/01/2008

The FMLA and the ADA may seem as though they overlap, but that’s not always the case. A disability under the ADA is almost always a serious health condition under the FMLA, but not every serious health condition is an ADA disability. Here’s why …

Don’t just rubber-Stamp manager’s termination recommendation

01/01/2008

When a supervisor recommends discharging an employee, resist the temptation to simply agree with her assessment. Here’s why: If the employee is being targeted because she took FMLA leave or engaged in some other form of protected activity, blind adherence to the supervisor’s recommendation to fire opens up the company to a retaliation claim.

EEOC called after MRSA scare costs Miami man his job

01/01/2008

A South Florida man may be the first U.S. employee to lose his job over methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus—a highly contagious and potentially lethal, drug-resistant bacterial infection also known as MRSA …

IT administrator helped himself to $580,000 worth of data

01/01/2008

William Sullivan, senior database administrator for Certegy Check Services of St. Petersburg, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud in connection with the theft of confidential data on more than 8.4 million customers over a five-year period …

Commissioner denies former aide’s sexual harassment charge

01/01/2008

Alyssa Ogden, former aide to Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White, says she was fired because she rebuffed numerous sexual advances since she joined White’s staff in April of 2007. She filed an EEOC complaint …

Employees have no right to change duties to fit beliefs

01/01/2008

Employers can’t discriminate against employees because of their honestly held religious beliefs. On the other hand, those religious beliefs don’t give employees the right to alter their jobs based on those beliefs. This is especially true for public employees who might expose their agencies to First Amendment establishment clause litigation …