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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) once again refused to a take a position on whether employers may use financial incentives to encourage employee participation in wellness programs — without violating the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). In an informal opinion letter from the EEOC’s Office of Legal Counsel, the commission assured employers that […]
Recently, an employee argued in an association discrimination claim that he was fired because his employer feared he would be distracted at work by his wife’s disability. That excuse didn’t pan out, because in fact the employer was just fed up with the individual’s poor performance, making it a legitimate employment termination. So in a […]
Companies that move from pensions to a cash balance plan can benefit by avoiding the risk of market volatility, but they should explain all aspects of the switch to employees and be careful not to violate the prohibition against age discrimination. When cash balance accounts replace retirement pensions, employees can be highly sensitive to the […]
Many members of the military serving our country in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc., do double duty as employees for public and private sector companies. This raises a host of HR issues for them and their family members, as they have taken leave both for military duty and, in some cases, to deal with the impact […]
Now that the dust is settling over the nationwide class-action disability discrimination lawsuit Verizon settled with the EEOC, we at the SmartHRManager blog wanted to ask HR professionals what this settlement means to their companies. To help you answer that question, take a look at the consent decree’s corporate improvement plan, which highlights what Verizon […]
In the largest disability discrimination settlement in U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission history, Verizon Communications has agreed to pay $20 million to hundreds of employees. The settlement resolves allegations that the company violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by implementing an unlawfully rigid attendance policy. Verizon denied reasonable accommodations to employees and disciplined and/or fired […]
Before terminating or taking any other adverse action against an employee, employers must consider not only whether the employee is in a protected category, but also whether the employee’s friends or family are, too. Lawsuits alleging discrimination or retaliation by association appear to be on the rise, an attorney warned attendees at the Society for Human Resource […]
Pop quiz. Do you think it’s safe to discipline or terminate an employee for being absent or tardy too often? For driving a truck even though he knew he was likely to have an epileptic seizure soon? For throwing her performance improvement plan across the room and hurling profanities at the supervisor who gave it […]
Some requests for Family and Medical Leave Act leave just sound suspicious. For example, consider the case of an employee who requested leave during the exact same time of year he had taken off four years earlier. His supervisor ordered surveillance, and terminated him when it turned up what appeared to be evidence of fraud. The employee in […]
How’s this for an illustration of how quickly developments can pop up that may require you to revise your employee handbook? Speaking at the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual conference today, Christine V. Walters discussed a new ruling only five days old, in which a federal appeals court held that an overly broad confidentiality policy […]