Policies / Handbooks

Train bosses: You must report all harassment

09/05/2018

Anyone who sees harassment happening should say something to the appropriate company office or individual in charge of preventing and stopping harassment. The EEOC takes this “see something, say something” reporting requirement very seriously.

Auto-erased surveillance video can be perfectly legal

08/08/2018

Do you take video recordings of the workplace and automatically delete them based on a set schedule? That’s fine as long as you haven’t been notified of pending litigation.

Go beyond harassment best practices: Add respect to your culture

07/26/2018

This current wave of harassment accusation appears to be a fundamental climate change in how our culture handles power and ethics. Your organization has two choices—be reactive and live in fear of it happening to you, or be proactive and get ahead of it.

Warn supervisors: Never delete texts and emails related to employee’s complaint

07/24/2018

Be sure to warn supervisors and managers that if an employee has filed an EEOC or internal complaint or a state or federal lawsuit, deleting texts or emails related even tangentially to the underlying complaint can be risky.

Even with FMLA, enforce no-show/no-call rule

07/24/2018

Employers can and should set reasonable standards for how employees let their bosses know they won’t be coming to work. Those rules can require calling in before the start of a shift if the employee is ill or has a medical emergency, even if it may be covered by the FMLA.

When punishing harassment, you may discipline different perpetrators differently

07/14/2018

Employers investigating workplace harassment accusations may wonder if all the alleged perpetrators must be disciplined equally harshly. You do have some discretion in how you mete out punishment. Just make sure you can later justify why one party was less culpable or deserved a lesser punishment than others.

Review your handbook: NLRB changes the rules on workplace rules

07/13/2018

The National Labor Relations Board last year overturned an established standard for determining if workplace rules comply with the National Labor Relations Act. Now the NLRB has issued a memorandum providing employer guidance.

Gov’t employees: No due process claim to promotion

06/26/2018

Public employees have a right to due process before being deprived of the property interest that is their job. Essentially, that means a public employer has to provide “some sort of a hearing” allowing the worker to present his side of the story before being fired. That right doesn’t extend to a promotion not granted.

Failure to follow reporting procedures can justify firing—even if boss should have acted

06/26/2018

If an employer has a process in place for reporting wrongdoing that includes bypassing one’s supervisor when necessary, employees who don’t take that step can’t aviod punishment by blaming the supervisor. That’s not a justified excuse.

Review handbook for at-will conflicts

06/12/2018

If an employee has a contract with his employer that specifically limits his discharge, then at-will employment does not apply. This situation can get tricky if your employee handbook lacks a contract disclaimer or contains language that seems to limit your right to fire employees.