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New York

Long-Ago acts can show pattern of ongoing harassment

12/01/2007

Here’s another reason to tell managers and supervisors that any and all sexual harassment must stop: Even if it has been years since an egregious act of sexual harassment, recent subtler incidents can revive the claim. That’s why it is important to stop harassment in its tracks—and then monitor the situation. You can do that by checking back with the accuser on a regular basis …

E-mails and messages may come back to haunt managers

12/01/2007

Increasingly, courts hearing discrimination cases order employers to turn over e-mails and text messages. These communications may include correspondence employees may have sent or received from clients and customers. One reason is that federal court rules on electronic discovery now require employers to retain vast amounts of information for use in litigation …

Limit attacks on purging records with a clear retention policy

12/01/2007

If you develop a reasonable retention policy and follow through by regularly deleting information you don’t need, chances are an employee later won’t be able to say you intentionally interfered with the ability to present a legal case …

Use rational business reasons to justify RIF choice

12/01/2007

When employees lose their jobs, they naturally wonder why they were chosen. Employees who recently have complained about discrimination—real or imagined—often do more than wonder. They often jump to the conclusion that they have been fired in retaliation for complaining. That conclusion can lead to a lawsuit. Be prepared with solid and rational reasons why you chose the employee who got the ax …

Heart attack at work? Be prepared to prove stress wasn’t the cause

12/01/2007

The New York workers’ compensation system was set up as a no-fault system to compensate employees injured while working. There’s a powerful presumption under the system that any death that occurs during working hours is covered, at least if there’s an arguable claim that it was work-related. That’s why employees who have fatal heart attacks at work may sometimes be covered …

Applying for Special Disability Fund? Make sure you fill out forms correctly

12/01/2007

Employers and workers’ compensation carriers can sometimes be partially reimbursed for workers’ comp payments if prior injuries contributed to an employee’s inability to work. But applying to the Special Disability Fund requires careful completion of the application forms—the agency that handles such requests is often a stickler for details, and courts usually uphold the agency’s decisions …

Judge says prison harassment could have been deadly

12/01/2007

A lesbian prison guard has been awarded $850,000 after an administrative judge found that she had endured a “relentless, daily regimen of mental and physical threats” by a co-worker at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden …

Strippers to Scores: Take your hands off our tips

12/01/2007

Dancers at Scores, a nationwide chain of strip clubs, have filed a back-wage lawsuit over unpaid overtime, underpaid wages and the club’s practice of skimming 10% of their tips. The lawsuit was filed by a former employee of the chain’s northern New Jersey location, but seeks to represent more than 100 Scores employees …

Saigon Grill told delivery drivers to hit the road

12/01/2007

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has accused Manhattan’s Saigon Grill restaurants of illegally firing 22 delivery drivers because they requested minimum wage. The workers complained they were paid as little as $120 for a workweek that sometimes reached 75 hours …

Odd workplaces: Trader claims he was forced to take hormones

12/01/2007

The EEOC is investigating a lawsuit by a former junior trader at SAC Capital Partners, headquartered in Stamford, CT, claiming his boss forced him to take female hormones and then sexually assaulted him …