12/18/2008
If you know an employee is suffering from depression, don’t be so quick to accept his or her hasty resignation, a new court ruling shows. Instead, you may need to identify this person as “disabled” under the ADA and, therefore, engage in an interactive process to find a work accommodation.
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12/09/2008
Brenda Monk, a former learning specialist for Florida State University (FSU), has announced plans to file a $600,000 lawsuit for defamation following allegations that she provided test answers to FSU football players and other athletes she was tutoring.
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12/08/2008
Dulzia Burchette, a black former saleswoman for the preppy-glam Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store chain in New York City, is suing the Ohio-based retailer for racial discrimination.
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11/12/2008
Sometimes, it’s tempting to offer a disgruntled employee a quick cash settlement in exchange for her signature on a liability release. If a few thousand dollars will avoid an expensive lawsuit, it’s worth it, right? Maybe, maybe not ...
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11/12/2008
Sometimes, employees who think they are about to be fired for poor performance will try to take pre-emptive action by quitting and then suing. Courts are pretty strict when it comes to “constructive discharge” ...
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11/12/2008
The American Family Association (AFA) ended a five-month boycott of Oakbrook-based McDonald’s after a company executive resigned his seat on the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
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11/10/2008
If some of your employees work under an employment contract that sets salary and other terms, be careful about changing anything. While you may need to cut salaries during tough economic times, doing so without getting a written modification is risky.
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11/10/2008
Don’t be shy about restricting employees from stealing customers when they leave. Your best bet is to include specific language and examples of the sort of solicitation you want to ban.
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11/10/2008
Carl McAloose, the former Florida Gulf Coast University athletic director, said it only took him “about five seconds” to decide to resign after he heard the university had agreed to settle with Holly Vaughn, former women’s golf coach, and Jaye Flood, former women’s volleyball coach.
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11/07/2008
Dulzia Burchette, a black former saleswoman for Abercrombie & Fitch, is suing the company, claiming racial discrimination and harassment. Burchette says she was harassed when she came to work at the company’s Fifth Avenue store with blonde highlights in her hair.
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11/07/2008
Q. Recently, an employee left our company to join a competitor. When we took a look at his computer, we found deleted e-mails and files indicating he downloaded some valuable information about our customers. We suspect he transferred it to our competitor. He was an at-will employee and we had no employment agreement with him. Is there anything we can do about this?
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11/06/2008
Good news: Employees who allege they were fired for blowing the whistle on their employers for activities that violated the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act can’t also sue under Colorado’s common-law public-policy exception to at-will employment.
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11/06/2008
Mary Barone had worked for United Airlines since 1995. In 2005, she was promoted to manager of business process administration in Denver. Eventually, Barone sued for discrimination and retaliation, alleging constructive discharge—essentially that she had no choice but to resign.
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10/24/2008
Companies that self-administer their ERISA benefits plans, take note: Because your benefits decisions carry an implied conflict of interest (since rejecting a request for benefits such as retirement or payment of a medical bill means spending fewer company assets), courts expect your decisions to be transparent and based on good documentation.
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10/24/2008
Two dozen civil rights groups signed a letter calling for the resignation of Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell, following an article in the Raleigh News & Observer in which Bizzell lamented the influx of “drunk Mexicans” who “rape, rob and murder” American citizens and are “breeding like rabbits” in his county.
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