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Texas

Lawsuit: TDCJ demotion wasn’t just due to faulty time sheets

07/03/2012

The former director of public information at the Texas Department of Crimi­nal Justice (TDCJ) is suing the agency after she was demoted and subsequently resigned. She says her demotion was retaliation for blowing the whistle on internal violations of state law and policy.

Assumptions about disability cost Dallas company $50,000

07/03/2012
Stevens Transport, a Dallas-area trucking company, has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle EEOC charges that it refused to hire a paraplegic man for a management position due to his disability.

4 FMLA strategy tips: How to certify intermittent leave

07/03/2012
Managing FMLA intermittent leave can be vexing, but employers do have some tools to combat leave abuse. One of the most important is FMLA certification. Here are four tips on certifying FMLA intermittent leave requests:

Title VII complaints involving nonemployees aren’t protected

07/03/2012

When an employee complains she is being harassed, that’s protected activity that cannot be punished. Like­­wise, complaining that a co-worker is being harassed is protected activity. But it’s not protected activity if an employee complains that someone not connected with the employer is being harassed.

When employee complains of harassment, act fast to fix it

07/03/2012
Resolve every sexual harassment complaint ASAP. That way, it won’t come back to haunt you.

Employees’ job qualifications changing? Document notice and offer additional training

07/03/2012

Jobs change, sometimes for reasons of operational efficiency. Other times, new job requirements are mandated by outside authorities, something that’s common in the education and health care industries. Either way, be sure to give staff members as much notice as possible so they can seek additional training or look for other opportunities.

Employee takes false allegations to the press? You can sue for defamation

07/03/2012
Here’s a novel approach for em­­ployers falsely accused of discrimination in the press. If you win the discrimination case, you may be able to sue the employee for defamation.

Employee works despite FMLA leave? That’s not your fault–nor FMLA interference

07/03/2012

When employees need intermittent FMLA leave, they are entitled to take time off free from work responsibilities. Of course, that may leave some tasks undone. Some employees, especially those in management positions, may feel obliged to work additional hours, or may sometimes forgo taking leave. As long as there’s no employer pressure to get the work done, that extra work won’t support an FMLA-interference lawsuit.

Feel free to make routine shift changes–courts won’t consider that evidence of retaliation

07/03/2012

Generally, employees claiming they suffered retaliation after engaging in protected activity—such as complaining about discrimination or taking protected FMLA leave—must show that the retaliation would have dissuaded a reasonable employee from complaining or taking leave. The hypothetical reasonable employee standard isn’t very specific.

Texas EEOC complaints up for second straight year

07/03/2012
Texas employees are doing more than their share to keep the EEOC busy, filing more discrimination charges per capita than the national average.