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Employment Law

Raise Doesn’t Prove Employee Was Succeeding

10/01/2001

Q. About three months ago, we gave a marginal employee who is pregnant a pay raise in hopes that it would improve her job performance by boosting her morale. Unfortunately, her performance has gone from bad to worse. If we fire her for poor performance, can she successfully argue that the recent raise indicates that she was performing well and that our reason for terminating her was discriminatory? —H.K., Illinois

Test before deciding on employee’s limits

09/01/2001
Shirley Hoffman was a whiz at her indexing job at Caterpillar Inc. She moved faster than almost anyone, even though she was born without a left arm below the elbow. Several …

Keep staff on site, but off clock, during meals

09/01/2001
Corrections officers in Pima County, Ariz., couldn’t run out to Burger King at lunch. During their half-hour lunch break, they were relieved of their duties but still had to stay on …

Don’t let blabbing employees hide their identity on the Internet

09/01/2001
Imagine that an employee posts confidential information about your company on an Internet message board. What do you do? One company sued the message-board site to learn the identity of the …

Once you accommodate disabled, proving ‘hardship’ gets tougher

09/01/2001
When Larry Skerski began working as a cable technician, about half his job involved climbing ladders, poles and towers. But a decade into his job, he developed a panic disorder when …

Small, but vital, function of a job may make it ‘essential’ under ADA

09/01/2001
Job descriptions at Northern States Power Co. make it an “essential function” for customer service reps to handle emergency calls like gas leaks and downed power lines. Loretta Emerson handled …

Simple accommodation efforts can avoid major headaches

09/01/2001
Cathy Collings wanted to fire one of her employees, a state social worker, because he refused to license homosexuals as foster parents. The worker said that his religious beliefs prevented it. …

Risky environment won’t end your duty to reduce danger to staff

09/01/2001
All patients at Topeka State Hospital posed a danger to themselves or others. Staff members knew that, and the hospital regularly required workers to sign job description documents that mentioned the …

Investigate complaints, pronto

09/01/2001
The male workers at an Azteca restaurant constantly mocked Antonio Sanchez for his effeminate ways. They swore at him and referred to the waiter as “she” and “her.” Sanchez finally …

Overtime: Pay it now or pay it after a lawsuit

09/01/2001
Before you pile extra work on employees without paying overtime, make sure you’ve correctly classified your workers. A California jury recently ordered Farmers Insurance Exchange to pay overtime to 2,400 …