• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly
Connection failed: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory

Florida

Courts crack down on lawsuits against entities not named in EEOC complaints

12/13/2010

Eventually, your organization will be blindsided by a discrimination lawsuit that seems to come out of nowhere. In fact, it may hit years after the alleged bias occurred. That means you may long ago have discarded the documents that could clear the company. But courts are growing impatient with employees who launch such sneak attacks, as this recent 11th Circuit decision shows.

Florida’s business climate a relatively sunny 14th best

12/13/2010
Florida has the nation’s 14th best business climate, according to Site Selection magazine. Florida finished sixth in the executive survey of overall business climate and 11th in 2010 new plant rankings. The state finished 31st in overall competitiveness, and 40th in new plants per million residents.

Whistle-blowing test: Did employer break law?

12/13/2010
Employees who report concerns that co-workers are breaking the law may view themselves as whistle-blowers—and may believe that makes them untouchable if they themselves have done something wrong. Not true!

Regularly review wage-and-hour compliance

12/13/2010

When an employee hires an attorney, you can bet that the lawyer will go looking for as many legal claims as possible. And high on the list of possible claims are wage-and-hour matters. That’s how something as simple as an unemployment compensation consultation can wind up turning into a major lawsuit.

Cobra, bitten by lawsuit, pays for sexual harassment

11/29/2010
Delray-based construction companies, Cobra Pavers & Engineering and Cobra Construction have agreed to pay $125,000 to settle sexual harassment charges brought by women who worked in the firms’ offices.

Log misconduct or worker could get unemployment

11/29/2010

When you discharge an employee for misconduct, she theoretically isn’t eligible for unemployment compensation because the employee’s own poor behavior is what caused her dismissal. But you can’t be sloppy when you document the misconduct. Take the time to investigate before you terminate.

Bulletproof anti-harassment policy by ensuring employees know how to lodge their complaints

11/29/2010

It’s been over a decade since the U.S. Supreme Court laid down the law on what employers need to do to prevent and cure sexual harassment. That’s long enough for complacency to have set in. By now, some employers may have started taking sexual harassment less seriously than they did when the court first ruled. That’s a potentially costly mistake.

How to Collect Employee Medical Info Under New FMLA Rules

11/10/2010
Login Email Address Password I forgot my password To continue reading this page, become an HR Specialist Premium Plus member today! Your subscription includes: Ask the Attorney: Answers to your HR legal questions Compliance Guidance: Access to 7,000 HR news articles, updated daily, sorted by state State-by-State: Summaries of HR laws in all 50 states […]

When manager slides from difficult to impossible, good documentation supports reason for firing

11/09/2010
There comes a time when you might be forced to conclude that the problem with a department isn’t all those lousy employees, but the person who manages them. If that’s the case, it may be time to terminate the manager.

Planning for the worst: Implementing a workplace violence policy

11/08/2010
You can’t predict the behavior of your employees, clients and all their associates. You can’t anticipate every possible danger. But the law dictates that you, as the employer, have a “duty of care” to keep all individuals in your workplace safe from dangers you can reasonably anticipate. To do that, you need to evaluate potential dangers and formulate an appropriate action plan.