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Louisiana

Make sure job descriptions accurately list qualifications

11/01/2007

Accurate, up-to-date and comprehensive job descriptions are essential in defending against all manner of employee lawsuits. As the following case shows, you can’t argue that an applicant doesn’t have the necessary experience or education if your job description doesn’t list those qualifications …

Demanding lie detector test isn’t necessarily retaliation

11/01/2007

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Texas employers, has refused to say that Title VII prohibits the use of polygraph examinations in harassment investigations. Now juries get to decide whether forcing an employee to undergo a polygraph exam is retaliation for filing a complaint …

Court: If employees hold the job, they’re ‘Qualified’

11/01/2007

Employers are finding it harder to get age discrimination cases dismissed early. They also are learning that beating age discrimination suits requires rock-solid evidence of fair and equal treatment—and a genuine, legitimate reason for discharging the employee that has nothing to do with age …

If employee makes threats, discipline isn’t retaliation

11/01/2007

You’ve done everything right. You have a solid anti-harassment and discrimination policy, a simple and effective complaint process and you strive to fairly, completely and quickly resolve complaints. But what do you do when the employee who complained doesn’t like the results and blows up? …

It’s not discrimination if worker wasn’t disciplined

11/01/2007

Employees whose employers turn down their requests for time off to attend religious services can’t just run out and sue for religious discrimination. They have a case only if their employers discipline or discharge them for refusing to comply with work requirements—for example, skipping work to attend services …

Manager’s waffling can invalidate otherwise-Legitimate arbitration policy

11/01/2007

Texas employers that want their employees to give up the right to take employment disputes to court must make sure they are clear about that intention. Although employees don’t actually have to sign the agreement to arbitrate, they must understand that the agreement is a condition of employment …

Have zero tolerance for offensive national-Origin comments

10/01/2007

A nation embroiled in war tends to be jittery and tempers run high. When anger and emotion seep into the workplace, things can get ugly. That’s why it’s important to remind everyone that you won’t tolerate comments, gags or jokes aimed at employees who may share ethnicity, religion or national origins with the “enemy” …

Fire offender to decouple discrimination, employment action

10/01/2007

Remind upper-level managers: When a supervisor or mid-level manager makes comments that could be construed as racist or religiously motivated, it pays to act fast. In fact, firing the responsible manager sometimes can be the best way to go. That way, if the employee he disparaged later gets turned down for a promotion or a raise, it will be much harder for an attorney to show a connection between the supervisor’s biased views and the denied opportunity …

Do you destroy hiring documents? Track process anyway

09/01/2007

Nothing generates paper like the hiring process, especially if it involves multiple interviews and committee meetings. What do you do with all that paper? If you destroy it, be prepared to show you do so routinely. Otherwise, a jury or judge may view the destruction as evidence you have something to hide …

One mistake won’t sink fluctuating workweek election

09/01/2007

Employers that use the Fair Labor Standards Act’s fluctuating workweek method to calculate pay should take heart!  Making one innocent deduction mistake doesn’t mean you can never use the method again …