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Pennsylvania

Managers’ e-Mails give life to pregnancy case

08/27/2008
Beverly Health and Rehabilitation Services in Richland will have to defend itself before a trial court against a pregnancy discrimination suit filed by ex-employee Barbara Stager. In court, Stager produced e-mail exchanges between company managers that referred to Stager as “high maintenance” and called her a “princess.” “Let’s see if we can nip this,” a director wrote under the subject line “FMLA.” …

Ex-Worker charged in killings was upset about a reprimand

08/27/2008
Robert Diamond, the fired worker charged with killing two employees at Simon & Schuster’s distribution center in Bristol on Aug. 1, said he had been harassed by co-workers and was upset about being reprimanded in March for calling a black co-worker “boy.” …

Cell phones, laptops and BlackBerrys: Understand the liability risks

08/27/2008

Before you hand out cell phones, laptops and BlackBerrys to everyone on your staff, understand that such tech tools may expose your organization to legal liability. Two legal minefields are particularly worrisome …

How should we pay for weekend travel time?

08/27/2008
Q. How do we pay hourly employees who are traveling on a day that’s not considered a workday, like Saturday or Sunday? What if they normally have a 10-minute commute to the office but instead they have to go to the airport, and the airport is an hour from their homes? …

Ensuring the confidentiality of HR info

08/27/2008
Q. I’m the HR director of a 45-employee company and have one assistant. Due to the firm’s growth, I’m considering giving my assistant more responsibility. My concern: The assistant is very friendly with about 10 other employees, two of which are her roommates. What’s to stop her from divulging information to her friends? I have said nothing to her about my concerns yet. What can I express to her without overstepping her legal rights? …

Handling a boorish union rep

08/27/2008
Q. One of our employees serves as a committee member for a labor union that represents some of our employees. He uses his union position to protect himself from our company’s policy on insubordination. Does management have a right to ban this employee from the property when he conducts labor business because of his combative, disrespectful and intimidating manner? What rights does management have under this circumstance? …

Must we translate our handbook?

08/27/2008
Q. If an employee speaks Spanish and doesn’t understand English, am I required to have my handbooks and other policies translated into Spanish? Is the handbook valid if the employee signs but does not understand the content?  …

Transfer that call! Let benefits admin field pension queries

08/25/2008
Employees often rely on benefits information to make major life decisions—e.g., setting a retirement date or turning down a job offer—so it’s wise to let your benefits administrator field the questions rather handling them internally. Here’s why: Something as simple as making a mistake while calculating the employee’s years of service can lead to an ERISA lawsuit years later over retirement benefits …

Weigh downsides before requiring arbitration agreements

08/25/2008
It sounds like a great idea: Instead of risking a large jury award in court, get employees to agree in advance to have an arbitrator mediate all employment disputes. But, in practice, arbitrators often bend over backward to give employees a break. Plus, an arbitrator’s decision is hard to undo …

Discrimination irrelevant if basic qualification is missing

08/25/2008
It may sound logical and reasonable, but it took a federal appeals court to decide it once and for all: An individual can’t sue for discrimination and win when it’s crystal clear he lacks an essential job requirement and therefore isn’t qualified for the job …