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Florida

What to do when complainer is actually the harasser?

01/01/2007

Just because an employee urges you to investigate alleged discrimination, don’t assume you have to treat that person with kid gloves. If it turns out that the complainer was actually the one causing the problems, you can—and should—take action …

Volunteers can sue for job discrimination

01/01/2007

You may believe that interns, volunteers or other unpaid helpers aren’t official “employees” so they can’t sue for discrimination. You’d be wrong …

New Class-Action Suits Show Need to Track Hours Closely

01/01/2007

In light of a slew of recent wage-and-hour lawsuits against big companies like Wal-Mart and UPS, now’s a good time to review how you track the hours worked by employees. Reason: Following the Wal-Mart lawsuit lead, clever lawyers now seek out one or two unhappy employees who want to start a class-action case under the Fair Labor Standards Act …

Use Applicant-Tracking Policy to Prevent Hiring-Bias Claims

01/01/2007

To ward off any hint of hiring bias, develop a tracking system that allows you to easily show who applied for jobs and where you routed their applications …

‘Sexist attitude’ isn’t direct evidence of discrimination

01/01/2007

To support sex discrimination lawsuits, employees must do more than claim their supervisor had a “sexist attitude.” Without more proof of job-related impact, complaints about supervisors with attitude aren’t enough direct evidence …

Preserve e-mail records; new e-discovery rules kick in

01/01/2007

When employees sue your organization, you must turn over any related documents—including old e-mail messages and computer records—during the discovery phase. But be aware that recent changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure place an even greater burden on you to come clean with what information you have …

Weather can excuse late filing for unemployment benefits

01/01/2007

As every Florida resident knows, hurricanes can wreak havoc. But until now, ex-employees had to file unemployment compensation appeals by the statutory deadline—hurricane or no hurricane …

Don’t Forget to Comply With New Minimum-Wage Poster Law

01/01/2007

Effective Jan. 1, 2007, the new minimum wage in Florida is $6.67 per hour. This represents a 27-cent increase from the $6.40 per-hour minimum in 2006 …

Florida’s business tax climate ranked fifth best in 2007

01/01/2007

Florida’s tax climate is the fifth best in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation’s annual State Business Tax Climate Index …

Employees’ hostile pranks spell setback for Fort Lauderdale

01/01/2007

Dogged for over a decade by lawsuits alleging racial and sexual discrimination, the city of Fort Lauderdale has been working to change that atmosphere. But two recent instances of hostile employee pranks marked a major setback for the city’s effort …