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Terminations

Discrimination or paranoia? Courts can distinguish

11/15/2010
Courts are beginning to get tough on employees who say they had no choice but to quit and then sue for alleged discrimination.

Use exit interviews to identify patterns of supervisor’s hidden discrimination

11/15/2010

Do you suspect a rogue supervisor is driving away employees belonging to a protected class? If so, begin asking tougher questions during your exit interviews. For example, if several black employees who work under the same supervisor have quit or requested transfers, find out why. The problem may be a biased supervisor …

Set up systems to prevent employee sabotage

11/12/2010

Employees often have legitimate reasons for accusing their employers of retaliation. But sometimes, employees themselves retaliate against a company, either out of malice, or to head off being fired. That’s one reason it pays to try to anticipate employee misfeasance and guard against sabotage.

Do I need a state-specific separation agreement?

11/11/2010
Q. I am terminating employees in three states. Is it OK for me to use my standard separation agreement in all three states?

What’s the best way to handle termination meetings?

11/11/2010
Q. I just terminated an employee and it was an ugly, public scene. Do you have any tips for making termination meetings easier?

Know the NLRA: Unionized or not, labor law applies to you

11/11/2010

The federal labor law can be a trap for the unwary—even for nonunion employers. Even if your employees don’t belong to a union, the National Labor Relations Act applies to you. For example, the National Labor Relations Board recently announced that a nonunionized employer will pay $900,000 to two fired employees to settle charges that it violated the NLRA.

Pay cut may be legit reason to quit, collect unemployment

11/11/2010
To deal with a down economy, employers sometimes cut employee pay. A significant pay reduction may be grounds for an employee to quit and collect unemployment.

Don’t automatically concede unemployment to top execs

11/11/2010
Not every employee who loses a job through no fault of his own is eligible for unemployment compensation. About 40 job classifications are ineligible—most of them highly compensated or policy-making positions.

Some public employee speech is protected but not speech that’s part of the job

11/11/2010

Some government employees mistakenly believe an employer can’t punish anything they say because the U.S. Constitution gives them the right to free speech. They’re forgetting that free speech has limits. For example, their speech is protected only if it touches on matters of public importance. And it is not protected if the speech occurs as part of their jobs.

RIF might affect employees serving in military? Don’t hold missed training against them

11/11/2010

Watch out if you’re contemplating a layoff that could involve employees who have recently returned from active duty in the armed forces. If those employees missed any training, and you plan to use training as one of the criteria for deciding which employees to retain, you run the risk of violating USERRA.