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Terminations

Are there alternatives to noncompete agreements?

12/08/2009

Q. I have certain employees that I don’t want leaving my business to work for a competitor. I am leery about using a noncompetition agreement because I know that courts can be hostile toward them. I understand they can cost a lot of money in legal fees to enforce. Are there any alternatives for me to consider?

Warn managers: Don’t make assumptions about pregnant employee’s capabilities

12/08/2009

HR professionals must make sure that supervisors hear this message loud and clear: Don’t make any assumptions about what a pregnant woman can or cannot do. Voicing such presumptions and taking action based on them virtually guarantees a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit.

Porn on shared computer? Enforce log-in, log-out rules

12/07/2009

Your computer-usage policy no doubt prohibits visiting inappropriate web sites. But what if someone surfs forbidden sites using a computer that a group of employees has access to? In such cases, investigate but make sure to check out everyone’s story.

Have those who do the hiring also do the firing

12/04/2009

Here’s one of the easiest ways to reduce your chances of losing a race discrimination lawsuit: Make sure the same person or group who chose to hire an employee in the first place also makes the decision to terminate her. That makes it much harder for the employee to show she was fired for a discriminatory reason.

Fire at will: The last straw doesn’t have to be the same for all employees

12/04/2009

Some employees who break rules believe they’re immune from firing if someone else committed the same infraction and didn’t get fired. That’s simply not true. What may be a firing offense for one employee doesn’t have to be the last straw for every other employee. The key is to document—at the time—why you made the decision so you can later explain the difference between the two situations.

North Carolina Supreme Court rules: No unemployment with voluntary early retirement

12/04/2009

Employees who decide to accept their employer’s offer for early retirement can’t also collect unemployment compensation. So said the North Carolina Supreme Court in a decision based on a simple concept: The employee would still have a job if he or she hadn’t chosen instead to take the enhanced retirement benefits offered as an incentive to leave early.

How does the Texas job reference law affect what I can say about former employees?

12/03/2009

Q. I recently received an inquiry for a reference regarding a former employee. Does the job reference law alter what I should disclose regarding this person’s employment history?

Discipline ‘protected’ employee—but document why you treated similar offenses differently

12/03/2009

When it comes to discipline, the primary rule is to treat similar rule violations alike. That means you’ll have to punish all kinds of people for misbehaving, even if they’re members of a protected class. Don’t hesitate to do so if their behavior warrants it.

Noose, slurs lead women to sue for discrimination

12/03/2009

Two former employees of Trey Industries are suing the commercial construction company, claiming they were fired after complaining about racism they experienced while working at a Marathon Oil facility in Texas City.

After the deluge: Hurricane Ike washes up an age bias lawsuit

12/03/2009

A former employee of the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston has filed a lawsuit alleging he was fired last year because of his age. Thomas Galan claims he was let go at the age of 53 after Hurricane Ike forced UTMB to temporarily shut down in September 2008 and lay off hundreds of employees.