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Employment Law

Document accommodation delays beyond your control

07/01/2007

The ADA requires employers to try to accommodate disabilities so workers can perform the essential functions of their jobs. Accommodation can include special equipment. But employers must not delay the accommodations process. If it takes too long to get the equipment a disabled employee needs, employers may be liable …

Be prepared to explain each promotion decision

07/01/2007

One of the most important factors in promotion discrimination cases is also one of the easiest to control. The courts may not care that your decisions on whom to promote were perfectly rational; they want proof that you used the same factors for each candidate, flawed or not …

When same manager hires and fires, it’s unlikely to be discrimination

07/01/2007

The New York Human Rights Law, like Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act, makes it illegal to fire an employee because of his or her race. Both laws also recognize that it’s unlikely that a manager who is aware of an employee’s race when hiring would turn around and fire the same employee because of race …

Lockheed Martin liable under federal law for engineer’s drowning

07/01/2007

The widow of a Lockheed Martin test engineer who drowned in Cayuga Lake when he fell from a company barge settled a lawsuit against the company for an undisclosed amount. The widow sued under the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act …

Nursing home to pay $900,000 in language-Based discrimination case

07/01/2007

Flushing Manor Geriatric Center Inc. in Queens will pay $900,000 to 29 Haitian and Jamaican employees for race discrimination and retaliation …

Construction firms not responsible for guard’s asphyxiation death

07/01/2007

A federal district court has ruled that Tom Allen Construction Company and general contractor Mears Group are not responsible for the death of a security guard at a Hunts Point construction site …

The shock jock heard ‘Round the world—And in NYPD, too

07/01/2007

It’s been called the “Imus virus”—people across the country repeating the infamous last words of radio shock jock Don Imus, always with equally dismal results. In Brooklyn, three female police officers filed a federal lawsuit against the New York City Police Department after a sergeant rallied them during roll call with “Stand up, hos.” …

Echoes of Virginia Tech

07/01/2007

In a disturbing case of copycat thinking, a Suffolk County Community College employee told his supervisor during an argument, “If I get one more write-up, if you think they had a problem in Virginia, it’ll be worse here.” …

Pioneering female firefighter loses discrimination suit

07/01/2007

One of the 11 female firefighters who broke the Fire Department of New York’s gender barrier in 1982 lost a $10 million discrimination suit against the department …

Protecting employment tests from legal challenges

07/01/2007

Employers use a wide variety of tests to determine whether job applicants can perform the jobs they seek. The tests usually measure the candidates’ knowledge, skills and abilities. But if tests cover anything other than the employee’s ability to perform the job’s essential functions, employers could find themselves defending the tests in court …