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Employment Law

The fine line between humor and harassment in Passaic County

04/01/2007

How do you know where to draw the line between workplace humor and harassment? The answer: You don’t get to make that choice. Harassment, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. And it begins when somebody decides they’ve had enough of the “jokes” …

Nextel employees claim that sweetheart deal was a bitter pill

04/01/2007

Five former Nextel employees who received settlements from a class-action discrimination lawsuit have filed suit against Nextel and the law firm that brokered the settlement …

Employee or supervisor? Classification affects union eligibility

04/01/2007

One of the toughest tasks for HR is to decide which employees are supervisors. Employers need to know this because supervisors are excluded from a collective bargaining unit for union organizing and voting purposes …

Automatic deductions for mealtime: Legal, but dangerous

04/01/2007

Take note if you automatically deduct meal periods from your hourly employees’ total hours worked: Although making that deduction isn’t technically illegal and doesn’t by itself violate the Fair Labor Standards Act, it’s a dangerous practice …

Investigating EEOC complaint? You’re protected from retaliation, too

04/01/2007

If you’ve ever worried that participation in the internal investigation of an EEOC complaint might land you in trouble, you can take some comfort in a recent federal appeals court decision …

Delta settles allegations that it misused disabled workers’ fund

04/01/2007

Atlanta-based Delta Airlines will pay $70 million into a trust fund for disabled employees and retirees to settle U.S. Labor Department allegations that the airline misused the fund to pay severance packages after the 9/11 attacks …

Johnnie Cochran’s law firm takes aim at poultry processors

04/01/2007

The Cochran Firm, founded by the late Johnnie Cochran of O.J. Simpson-defense fame, has set its sights on the poultry-processing industry, filing lawsuits for back wages and other workplace violations …

Small subsidiary isn’t subject to FMLA if separate from parent

04/01/2007

S.P. Richards Co. (SPR), a Smyrna office-supply wholesaler, recently won an FMLA victory when the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals determined it would be considered separately from its parent company, Genuine Parts Co. …

Should you be allowed to ban guns from employees’ cars?

04/01/2007

The Georgia House and Senate once again are considering bills that would prohibit employers from banning guns from company parking lots …

You can ban employee smoking, but can you ban smokers?

04/01/2007

Employers are always looking for ways to cut health care costs … and smoking and overweight employees may seem like ripe targets for change …