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Terminations

Has accusatory pizza man made his final delivery?

08/26/2008
Two men went to a Papa John’s in Westfield to pick up a pizza. After they left the store, delivery driver Kelly Tharp told co-workers that one of the men had pulled out a gun. Tharp repeated his story to local police, describing the men’s car and offering a license plate number. The men sued Papa John’s for defamation, negligent hiring and related claims …

Is it legal to discipline an employee for tardiness by suspending her without pay?

08/26/2008
Q. I work in HR at a customer call-in center. To make sure we have enough coverage to handle calls, we have a strict tardiness policy. Recently, one of our customer service agents was late for work several days in a row. She is an otherwise outstanding performer and we don’t want to fire her. In the alternative, we would like to suspend her for one week without pay. Is that legal? …

Discharging employee after FMLA leave expires may be retaliation

08/25/2008
Eligible employees are entitled to up to 12 weeks of FMLA leave per year and are guaranteed their jobs back (or equivalent ones) if they return at the end of that leave. That means you can terminate at the end of 12 weeks, right? Maybe not …

Editor tries to stop presses on alleged retaliation

08/25/2008
Silvina Barboza served as editor of Latinos Unidos, a Spanish language newspaper owned by Greater Media Newspapers (GMN) in Freehold. Early in 2005, Barboza was diagnosed with obesity and scheduled for gastric bypass surgery in December. When management learned of her plans, GMN terminated her …

Employees win right to sue for employer post-Employment conduct

08/25/2008
Employers that think their liability ends when a terminated employee walks out the door better think again. A recent New Jersey case expanded employees’ rights to sue employers for post-termination nonemployment-related conduct. In the wake of the decision, courts may construe common employer acts as retaliation …

Child porn from lawmaker’s PC leads to quick resignation

08/25/2008
Just a week after child pornography was found on his office computer, State Assemblyman Neil Cohen turned in a one-sentence resignation letter. A General Assembly staffer allegedly found a photo of a naked girl in Cohen’s Union Township office …

Violating any work rule can be just cause for termination

08/22/2008
Under N.C. General Statute § 126-35, North Carolina state government employees can be discharged only for “just cause,” a term the statute doesn’t clearly define. The vague language can make it difficult to terminate a state employee. But that’s not the case if a state agency has a clear set of rules, can show the employee knew about those rules and broke them anyway …

Longtime hospital worker sues to keep her job

08/22/2008
You’ve got to give points for stamina, no matter the outcome, to 83-year-old Annie Allen, a part-time worker for more than 35 years at John Umstead Hospital in Butner. She’s fighting for her job after being fired earlier this year …

Former N.C. health plan official says firing was unjust

08/22/2008
George Stokes, former chief executive of North Carolina’s state employee health insurance plan, claims he was unlawfully fired and that lawmakers spread inaccurate information while ousting him …

State worker resigns over Helms flag flap

08/22/2008
The manager of the North Carolina state government’s standards laboratory created a stir in July when he ordered his department not to fly its flags at half-staff in honor of the memory of U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms …