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Retaliation

Beware ill-chosen words, which–all by ­themselves–can sometimes launch lawsuits

12/21/2011
Sometimes, a single poorly chosen phrase can generate large legal bills, as the following case shows.

Beware management push-back on HR decisions

12/21/2011
As an HR professional, you may come across employment practices that you think violate the law. What you do with that concern and how you express it may make the difference between engaging in protected activity or not—and by extension, whether you can sue for retaliation if upper management punishes you.

Budget cuts forcing layoffs or reorganization? Take care to spell out justification

12/16/2011
If you must eliminate jobs, make sure you create a clear paper trail explaining why and how you made the decision to terminate a particular individual. That’s especially important if the employee had discrimination charges pending—or a history of filing them.

Worker is her own lawyer? Take suit seriously

12/14/2011
When employees can’t find an attorney to handle their em­­ployment discrimination claims, they sometimes go it alone, filing their own EEOC complaints and then moving on to federal court. Even if so-called pro se litigants pre­sent confusing and seemingly contradictory cases, chances are a federal judge will expect the em­­ployer to respond.

Your dollars at risk: Protect yourself from personal liability

12/13/2011
HR pros spend a lot of their time ensuring that their companies comply with the law so they don’t wind up in court and lose big bucks to a jury verdict. But more and more, they find themselves defending not their employers’ bottom lines, but their own bank accounts. Here’s how to protect your personal funds.

Don’t fear legit discipline after employee complains

12/13/2011

Some employees try to use an EEOC complaint as a shield against criticism and discipline. They hope their employer will think twice before disciplining them for fear of a retaliation suit. Yes, a lawsuit is possible. That doesn’t mean you can ignore poor work.

Use formal application processes to ward off failure-to-hire/promote lawsuits

12/13/2011
You might assume that, before suing for failure to hire, job seekers and employees going for promotions would have to actually apply for the jobs they didn’t get. Unless your company has a robust, easy-to-use posting and application process, you could be wrong.

Sometimes, even harsh judges take pity on employers

12/07/2011
When a jury concluded that a supervisor got a subordinate fired for complaining about race discrimination, it zapped the employer with huge punitive damages in addition to back pay. However, it will only have to pay a fraction of that amount.

When employee complains about bias, take control ASAP to prevent retaliation

12/07/2011

When an employee complains about perceived discrimination, how you treat the worker can greatly affect the outcome if the case reaches court. The best approach: Handle the case professionally, at the HR function level.

Passage of time can kill retaliation claim

12/05/2011

There’s some good news for em­­ployers concerned about retaliation after an employee participates in protected activity such as testifying in another employee’s discrimination lawsuit. If a substantial amount of time has passed since the employee’s testimony, any disciplinary action you take probably won’t be enough to form the basis of a retaliation claim.