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North Carolina

Competition for job openings heats up to record high

07/06/2009

Those few employers that are adding staff are sifting through more résumés than ever. Employers, on average, are evaluating 5.4 candidates for each of their openings, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Congress considers legislation mandating paid sick leave

06/26/2009

Millions of employees would be eligible for seven days of paid sick leave annually if the Healthy Families Act, recently introduced in Congress, becomes law. A coalition of HR and business groups vowed to fight the bill, saying it would “force companies to increase layoffs, reduce wages and cut important employee benefits.”

Use ‘fresh-start’ policy to cut retaliation risk

06/26/2009

It often makes sense to give a fresh start to a poorly performing employee who has been complaining about discrimination. Place her in another position with a new supervisor, new co-workers and a clean disciplinary record. Then if her workplace problems persist, you can terminate her without worrying about retaliation claims.

Remind managers: Keep stereotypes to yourself

06/26/2009

Here’s a simple rule of thumb: Managers and supervisors should never comment on any aspect of an employee’s sexuality, the ability of men and women to get along or be managed by the other sex, or the relative age of employees. It’s too easy for employees to misinterpret those comments—leading to an expensive lawsuit.

When dealing with sexual harassment, fix the problem once and for all

06/26/2009

When an alleged sexual harasser is a supervisor, employers aren’t liable if there was no tangible employment action taken—the harassed employee wasn’t fired, demoted or otherwise punished—and the harassment was stopped promptly. But it doesn’t always work out so neatly in larger organizations.

HR decisions don’t have to be based on foolproof evidence—just good faith

06/26/2009

It’s emotionally difficult to terminate someone, especially in this economy. You may be tempted to drag out the process until you’re absolutely sure the employee broke a rule or committed a serious infraction. Don’t agonize unnecessarily about the decisions you have to make. As long as you act in good faith, you don’t have to be absolutely right about the underlying facts.

Rest easier: Harassment won’t lead to lawsuit for negligence and harassment

06/26/2009

Here’s a bit of good news: Employees who believe that their co-workers have discriminated against them or harassed them on account of their protected characteristics can’t sue under both Title VII and state tort laws. That takes away one potentially expensive avenue for recovering damages.

Employee is her own lawyer? You can pursue sanctions

06/26/2009

When disgruntled applicants or former employees sue employers, they sometimes represent themselves in court. Even though such cases may lack merit, that doesn’t mean they won’t wind up costing employers big bucks to defend. But employers have a way to dissuade such pro se litigants from pursuing frivolous lawsuits.

Treating everyone equally makes good business sense

06/26/2009

An employee who belongs to a protected class can win a discrimination lawsuit if she shows that a similarly situated co-worker who doesn’t belong to the same protected class got more lenient treatment than she did for the same rule violation or behavior. Therefore, be prepared to show in every case that you treated all employees equally.

Statesville Compare Foods settles bias claim with EEOC

06/26/2009

For the second time in a year, a North Carolina Compare Foods store has settled discrimination charges with the EEOC. As in the earlier case, this one—involving a store in Statesville—involved accusations that workers had been fired because they weren’t Hispanic.