Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Workplace investigations can be time consuming and exhausting—but, despite that, they’re not a time where it’s okay to cut corners. When conducting an investigation, the organization must always remember that it’s not only seeking to resolve the issue at hand, it’s also seeking to minimize the risk of future lawsuits and do everything properly in […]
There’s a huge divide between the whistleblower’s view of a situation and the legal analyst’s view, says attorney Brad Cave of Holland & Hart LLP in Cheyenne, Wyoming—and editor of Wyoming Employment Law Letter. If employers can “put on the whistleblower’s hat,” he says, they may be able to significantly reduce the risk of a […]
The American Dental Association has agreed to pay almost $2 million to resolve claims that it fired its Human Resources (HR) director and legal counsel in retaliation for speaking up about discrimination in the workplace.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals—which covers Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee—recently heard from a former Home Depot manager, claiming that he was discriminated against based on a “perceived” disability. The manager claims he was put on medical leave and required to undergo a psychological evaluation. The manager had made “threatening remarks” that could […]
A registered nurse complained to hospital management about patient safety practices. The hospital fired her shortly afterward, allegedly for improper and dangerous patient care. The nurse sued for retaliation and defamation. The California courts were left to decide if her termination based on a legitimate nonretaliatory reason.
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, written in 1906, portrays the harsh conditions immigrant workers faced in the meatpacking industry at the turn of the century. Sinclair’s novel helped pave the way for reform in the meatpacking industry and probably spawned the vegetarian movement, but that’s just neither here nor there.
by Mark I. Schickman Twenty years ago in Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the case of a female lifeguard who sued the city of Boca Raton for sexual harassment because her supervisor lifeguard, on duty with her on a local beach, subjected her to “uninvited and offensive touching,” made […]
Employees can be entitled to damages for emotional distress under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a federal appeals court has ruled.
Most employees in the United States are employed “at will,” which simply means that either the employee or the employer can end the employment relationship for any legal reason, or no reason at all, at any time. The law at the federal level has no requirement of giving a particular notice period when terminating a […]
Employees may bring two types of Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)-related claims against their employers: first, interference with their rights under the FMLA, and, second, retaliation against them for requesting time off under the FMLA, exercising rights under it, or making a claim.