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Employment Law

It’s OK to Force Admin Leave Pending Fact-Finding

10/01/2007

Sometimes, serious allegations—possible theft, sexual or racial harassment or violence—surface against employees. How you respond can be crucial to limiting your organization’s liability. The best response may be calling a timeout in the form of administrative leave pending an investigation. You can safely do so without fear that the move will generate even more litigation from a suspected wrongdoer …

Getting along without employee on FMLA leave? Go ahead and terminate

10/01/2007

When an employee goes on FMLA leave, someone has to do the work. What if that someone easily assumes the employee’s duties and does a great job? Can you use that fortuitous realization as the basis for firing the leave-taker when he returns? Perhaps, but there’s a risk. The employee may sue, alleging the real reason he was let go was retaliation for taking leave, and not that you figured out the company could get along just fine without him …

Isolated incident or slight doesn’t add up to retaliation

10/01/2007

No matter what you do, the workplace will never be free of tensions and annoyances. Although it’s a good idea to encourage courtesy and cordiality, you don’t have to worry that every little slight might come back in the form of a lawsuit …

False move can revive expired claim—As retaliation

10/01/2007

Employers nationwide breathed a sigh of relief when the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that employees must promptly bring discrimination claims. But the decision in the Ledbetter case isn’t as simple as press coverage may have suggested. In fact, any move a supervisor makes that could be interpreted as retaliation for the earlier, expired claim may be seen as retaliation for earlier complaints …

Read EEOC and PHRC complaints carefully to avoid surprise lawsuits later

10/01/2007

Employees are supposed to file EEOC and Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) complaints that fully explain the discrimination claims they’re making. The idea is to let employers know early on what the complaint is all about so that the case can be settled or sent on to court. But courts are lenient, sometimes bending over backward to allow a late claim based on general language in the EEOC or PHRC complaint …

PHRA and Title VII: No delays allowed when investigating sexual harassment

10/01/2007

Pennsylvania employers beware: The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) and Title VII require immediate action as soon as you learn about possible sexual harassment by a supervisor. That’s true even if the victim doesn’t come forward. If you wait until she complains, it may be too late …

PA Whistleblower Law imposes high standard for complaints

10/01/2007

A director of nursing for the John J. Kane Regional Center, an Allegheny County long-term care facility in Glen Hazel, sued the county, alleging she was fired for reporting unsafe conditions to authorities after a resident drowned in a bathtub in June 2005 …

ADEA verdict flies after Boeing’s job offer falls flat

10/01/2007

A former procurement-quality specialist for Boeing Company in Philadelphia does not have to accept reinstatement in lieu of front pay awarded by a jury in an age-discrimination suit, the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, has ruled …

Do your policies violate the NLRA? You might be surprised

10/01/2007

Employers beware! Do your personnel policies—or how you enforce them—violate the National Labor Relations Act? The answer may surprise you, especially if you operate in a union-free environment. Earlier this year, the National Labor Relations Board heard oral arguments in a case that will determine whether employees have the right to use their company’s e-mail system, or other communications-based systems, to communicate with each other regarding union matters and terms and conditions of employment …

How can employers get waivers of claims from terminated employees?

10/01/2007

Q. May an employer fire an employee and then ask the employee to sign a waiver of claims or severance agreement? …