The EEOC has filed suit against Medical Specialties Inc., alleging it discriminated against Evelyn Lockhart because of her religion. She is a member of a Christian denomination whose practitioners are forbidden to work on certain days.
One of the easiest ways to win a bias or harassment lawsuit is to get it dismissed on the grounds that the employee who is suing missed the 180-day deadline for filing an EEOC complaint or never filed at all. Check with the EEOC, and then pass the information to your attorneys.
Employees who intentionally don’t follow directions are insubordinate. That means you can fire them—even if they recently filed discrimination charges. Just be sure you can justify your action.
More than a decade after creating their first sexual harassment policies, some employers may be getting lax. That might be especially true if they haven’t received any complaints. If that rosy scenario sounds like your organization, you might be courting trouble.
Sometimes, you won’t find out about an employee’s mistakes until she’s not there to cover them up. If an employee went on vacation and you then discovered she was stealing, you wouldn’t hesitate to fire her, right? That shouldn’t change just because her absence was due to an illness.
Do you worry that encouraging someone to retire when he’s facing disciplinary action could backfire? Relax. In most circumstances, a voluntary retirement that isn’t pressured or forced because of a threat of imminent discharge isn’t considered a constructive discharge.
