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North Carolina

New worry serves as reminder to document discipline

05/28/2008
Publicly traded companies have a new worry: Employees can use the whistle-blowing provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) as another way to get back at employers when they are disciplined or fired. SOX makes it illegal to discipline an employee who complains that the company may be violating the Securities Exchange Act.

Does your organization use volunteers or interns? Know the employment law implications

05/28/2008

This is the time of year when college students start serving summer internships. Often, students offer to work without pay just to get the experience. But does this influx of possible free labor carry hidden risks? Perhaps …

Public employee free speech: Only statements of ‘Public concern’ protected

05/28/2008
The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protects public employees from being fired for engaging in some forms of free speech—but that protection is quite limited. For example, the right to free speech doesn’t mean that public employers can’t sack employees who maintain explicit or offensive web pages …

Investigation of NCHP proves unexpectedly revealing

05/28/2008
After several state troopers were dismissed from the North Carolina Highway Patrol (NCHP), Gov. Mike Easley commissioned a probe by Kroll Associates, a corporate investigative service renowned for its ability to ferret out—and keep—company secrets …

‘Exception’ could let church off hook in race discrimination case

05/28/2008
A magistrate has recommended that a federal judge dismiss a race discrimination lawsuit brought by the Rev. Derrick Gomez against the North Carolina Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America … 

Discrimination claims are up in North Carolina

05/28/2008
North Carolinians filed 15% more discrimination complaints in 2007 than they did in 2006, according to the director of the EEOC’s Charlotte office …

Bash away!

05/28/2008
The North Carolina Office of State Personnel has removed from its web site an online copy of its personnel handbook, which included a ban on anti-gay discrimination …

Ante up! Former sheriff guilty of video poker extortion conspiracy

05/28/2008
In May, a federal jury in Asheville found former Buncombe County Sheriff Bobby Medford guilty of money laundering, conspiracy and extortion following charges that Medford squeezed “protection” money from operators of illegal video poker machines …

Continental Tire must fund VEBA

05/28/2008
Charlotte-based Continental Tire North America has agreed to pay $158 million into a Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association, or VEBA, to continue health care benefits for approximately 2,400 retirees and workers. The workers sued after Continental reduced retiree health care benefits …

Letter carrier preferred not to

05/28/2008
U.S. Postal Service (USPS) investigators have discovered 100,000 pieces of undelivered mail at an Apex postal worker’s home. The mail, which was stacked on the letter carrier’s back deck, dated back as far as six years …