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Employment Law

DOJ files USERRA complaint against Warren County schools

11/30/2012
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed suit against the Warren County Board of Education, claiming it ­violated the USERRA when it refused to reinstate an assistant principal, a 20-year veteran of the Army Reserve who had been called to active-duty service in Kuwait and Afghanistan.

Request accommodations info after FMLA leave expires

11/30/2012
Employees who run out of FMLA leave may still be eligible for additional time off under the ADA if their condition qualifies as a disability.

If employee loses workers’ comp appeal, don’t be shy about asking him to pay legal fees

11/30/2012

Congratulations! You just won a workers’ compensation case because you had strong evidence that the employee’s injury wasn’t caused by anything that happened at work. Now get ready for round No. 2. If the employee appeals, be sure to ask for attorneys’ fees.

Exempt or nonexempt? Forget 50% rule for store managers who must multitask

11/30/2012
Good news for employers that list store managers as exempt even though they spend 50% or more of their time engaging in mundane tasks like stocking, running registers and assisting customers. Managers may be multitasking but that doesn’t mean they’re nonexempt.

Erratic employee veering toward violence? Request fitness-for-duty exam, fire if he refuses

11/30/2012

Sometimes, it becomes clear to a supervisor that an employee is acting strangely. The employee may be cranky, argumentative and unpleasant to co-workers and supervisors. He may register repeated complaints about discrimination or other ill treatment. And he may make threatening comments. If that happens, play it smart.

EEOC bias complaints near record high in 2012

11/30/2012
U.S. employees filed 99,412 charges of job discrimination with the EEOC in fiscal year 2012, which ended Sept. 30. That’s just 535 fewer than were filed in 2011, when the commission handled the most bias complaints in its 47-year history.

Employee is own lawyer? NC law on your side

11/30/2012
North Carolina’s employment and discrimination laws would appear to give em­­ployees many ways to sue their employers. Fortunately, each has specific requirements, which means employees who act as their own lawyers will have a hard time using them to sue you.

Track all ADA accommodation requests, responses

11/30/2012
If an employee sues over reasonable ADA accommodations, her attorney will probably ask how many recent accommodation requests you have received and whether you granted them. If you have this information on hand, it will be easier to defend the lawsuit.

Track all discipline just in case employee sues

11/29/2012
Not every terminated employee sues, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared. If you fire someone for breaking a rule, note which one.

Discovered unsuspected wrongdoing? Fire away!

11/29/2012
Sometimes, internal investigations pull back the curtain on performance problems that have nothing to do with the original inquiry. Even if it turns out that the initial reason for the investigation was unfounded, you don’t have to ignore other issues you may uncover.