Site Map - Hiring \ Employment Issues

04/29/2008 - An impolite, unpleasant, and volatile woman does not deserve workers’ compensation for the psychological damage she incurred at work, an appeals court ruled, because she brought it on herself.

04/28/2008 - Whistleblowers deserve protection.

03/28/2008 - Reviews should focus not on past problems but on how the worker can improve and plot a career path with the company.

03/27/2008 - A federal appeals court has ruled that an employee who suffered a breakdown after a stray dog found its way into a warehouse where she was working can pursue her claims against the company. The employee filed a lawsuit arguing that the company violated her rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) when it fired her after the incident. The court agreed that the employee’s actions, which included irrational behavior and anxiety, should have alerted the company that she might be suffering from a serious mental health condition.

03/27/2008 - Contract employees assigned to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) can pursue their lawsuit against the agency over stringent new background screening rules. The court ruled that the new requirements raise privacy issues and do not seem to further the government’s legitimate interests because they target low-risk employees as well as those in more sensitive positions.

03/27/2008 - A federal appeals court has overturned a circuit court’s sexual harassment verdict in favor of a fast food restaurant. In the case, the appeals court ruled that the owner of the business could be held liable for the actions of the restaurant manager who fired a teenage employee after she refused to date him and then blocked her access to information she needed to report the incident.

03/27/2008 - A new Oklahoma law (formerly H.B. 1927) would require that special advocates—those appointed by the court to represent the best interest of a child—undergo a criminal background check.

03/27/2008 - The California Court of Appeal has overturned a $1.5 million harassment verdict and ordered a new trial because the jury was given incorrect instructions on what constitutes sexual harassment. The plaintiff in the case was spanked as part of a team-building exercise.

03/27/2008 - An employee may sue his employer for intentional infliction of emotional distress, a federal appeals court ruled, after the worker was fired for refusing to confess to a crime he did not commit.

03/27/2008 - Investigations at the State Department are trying to determine if the passport files of "high-profile" individuals were improperly viewed.

02/29/2008 - The plaintiff suing his employer for sexual discrimination based on sexual orientation has been ordered to preserve photographs he took on his cell phone for use as evidence during the trial. The defendant claims that the photos prove that the plaintiff took part in the banter he later characterized as discrimination.

02/26/2008 - Workers need to be rescreened periodically to detect warning signs that could lead to fraud or workplace violence, but companies must be cognizant of the legal restraints when doing such screens.

02/10/2008 - In the latest security lapse, an illegal worker who fled Heathrow security three years earlier was found working as a cleaner at Parliament.