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Showing posts for: Termination & Resignation

Mar 26 2018
Harassment & DiscriminationTermination & Resignation

Q&A: Layoff of only older workers raises concerns

Maybe. At first glance, it appears that the layoff may be targeting employees who belong to a protected category under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA): age 40 and over. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the company’s decision is motivated by discrimination, but the outcome does invite closer scrutiny. Identify Objective Causes of…

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Mar 13 2018
CaliforniaTermination & ResignationWage and Hour

No extra OT owed for bonus based on % of earnings in California

An employer’s award of a bonus based on a percentage of overtime earnings didn’t require any extra overtime payments, ruled a federal district court in California. The decision illustrates how a dispute over 12 cents can literally turn into a federal case. During one particular workweek, an employee earned $4.745 in overtime. The employer provided…

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Feb 13 2018
Safety and HealthTermination & Resignation

Q&A: What to do when a fired employee makes a threat on the way out

A: Employers have a legal obligation to provide a safe workplace for their employees. Unfortunately, workplace violence is a modern reality. Don’t write off a threat because you think the employee is simply venting his or her frustration at being fired. Refer to your workplace violence prevention program and procedures. You may need to secure…

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Jan 10 2018
DisabilityTermination & Resignation

ADA accommodation may require showing rather than telling

ADA accommodation may require showing rather than telling An employee in Illinois will move forward to a jury trial on her disability discrimination claim alleging that her employer failed to provide a reasonable accommodation for her learning disability. Although supervisors told her how to complete her timesheets, the employee claims that she asked them to…

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Nov 21 2017
DisabilityQ&ASafety and Health

Q&A: Accommodate for Questionable Religious Belief?

Answer: The answer depends on whether you can accommodate the employee’s religious belief, not on whether his belief is “correct” according to any particular interpretation. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act requires employers to reasonably accommodate an applicant’s or employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs, unless it would cause an undue hardship to the business….

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Oct 24 2017
Harassment & DiscriminationTermination & Resignation

Q&A: Employer may require employee to disclose romance with subordinate

Answer: Yes to both of your questions. You can ask both employees about the existence of a romantic relationship and require them to disclose any romantic relationship with any of your other employees. If either of them refuse to answer your questions and their refusal impedes your ability to determine whether company policy has been…

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Oct 13 2017
DisabilityHarassment & DiscriminationTermination & Resignation

Ninth Circuit okays termination of employee with sleep apnea

Finding no evidence of discrimination under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a railroad terminated a train engineer because of his poor attendance, not his diagnosed sleep disorder. Although this case was brought under FEHA, the analysis was the same as it would be under…

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Oct 11 2017
Q&ASafety and HealthTermination & Resignation

Q&A: Termination after workplace injury may trigger workers’ comp retaliation claim

Answer: If you do, you’d better be absolutely certain of the safety violation and able to point to instances of other employees who were fired for similar violations even though they escaped injury. Otherwise, you risk a claim that you retaliated against the employee because of his on-the-job injury. You should also evaluate how an…

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Aug 11 2017
Harassment & DiscriminationQ&ATermination & Resignation

Q&A: Free speech has limits in private employment (fired Google engineer)

Answer: The constitutional right to free speech protects people from the government interfering with their speech, but it doesn’t insulate them from non-governmental consequences of that speech. So, government employees have free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution, but employees of private employers don’t have constitutional rights related to their employment. Private employers still have…

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May 15 2017
Harassment & DiscriminationOregonTermination & Resignation

Employer unlawfully discriminated against unmarried pregnant employee in Oregon

Court Finds University’s Defense Unconvincing The university rationalized that it wasn’t discriminating against the teacher based on her status (unmarried) but on her conduct (engaging in sex outside of marriage). However, the court wasn’t convinced by the employer’s argument and determined that the employee’s marital status wasn’t distinguishable from her conduct as a single woman….

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Apr 18 2017
HiringPrivacy & ConfidentialityQ&A

Q&A: Use caution before telling the truth about former employee

Answer: Not so fast! A signed release seems like a golden ticket to share your true feelings and frustrations about a former employee, but the release may not actually provide you with legal protection. In fact, that’s exactly what an Indiana medical clinic recently found out the hard way. In their situation, the clinic settled…

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Apr 04 2017
Harassment & DiscriminationTermination & Resignation

Female supervisor fired for sharing a stale cake will get her day in court

The supervisor, a single mother of seven, had worked for WinCo for 12 years. In that time, she was promoted to night-shift freight crew supervisor and had taken a leadership role on the safety committee. According to store practice, the supervisor was allowed to take stale cakes from the bakery cart to give to her…

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