Termination

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Protecting Your Company from Departing Employees

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

I may be naive, but I believe that most employees leaving one job for another want to leave in as amicable a way as possible. Most of them have no intention of stealing your trade secrets, unfairly competing against you or hurting your business in any way.
But then there are the other departing employees. They [...]

Weathering the Recession Without Extra Burden of Litigation

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

As an employment lawyer, I frequently am asked the question that all business people are asked these days: “How is your business faring in these troubled economic times?” I am personally happy that I can say, “My business is booming.” What I am not happy about is the reason for my current volume of business: [...]

Beware New ARRA Whistleblower Law

Monday, April 20th, 2009

More than just Big Brother is watching you. Your employees are watching too, and can use the protections of a new whistleblower law to protect their jobs if they report any kind of wrongdoing by your business.
The new whistleblower law is included as a tiny piece of the massive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (”ARRA”). [...]

Sexual Harassment for all Ages

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

Texas courts have considered sexual harassment at both ends of the age spectrum lately. One case involved a teenager as a victim and the other involved a 62-year old harasser who claimed age discrimination when he was fired. Both cases have lessons to teach employers about sexual harassment, still one of the most common employment [...]

Firing without Fear

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Many Texas business owners and managers that I know are extremely authoritative and competent until it comes to firing an employee. Then the most confident bosses become fearful. Getting sued by an employee scares them and rightfully so. But times are tough economically and you may have to terminate some employees just to keep your [...]

What Can You Say About a Former Employee?

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

So you fired an employee because you smelled alcohol on his breath right before he jumped into the cab of a company delivery truck. You let your assistant go because she was late for work at least two days per week and was recalcitrant when confronted.  You found your salesman so abrasive and arrogant that [...]

Employees Who Lie

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Have you ever discovered that an employee lied about something important at work? For example, what would you do if an employee called in sick on two scheduled workdays and then you found out she had really been in Las Vegas during her sick leave?
The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a city’s discharge of [...]

Avoiding Ageism Claims, Part 3

Friday, September 19th, 2008

As I have pointed out in the earlier posts in this series on age discrimination, the demographics of the available workforce are soon going to require you as an employer to recruit and retain older workers. With historically low unemployment rates in the Texas Panhandle, that time may already be upon us.
Many business owners and [...]

Layoffs Can Lead to Lawsuits

Friday, August 1st, 2008

The Department of Labor released new unemployment figures today. Nationwide, the unemployment rate is 5.7%. That is the highest it has been in 4 years. The DOL found that the manufacturing, construction and retail industries were seeing lots of layoffs, while education and health care are still growth industries.
In the Panhandle of Texas, the unemployment [...]

Employers Can Face Criminal Penalities

Monday, July 28th, 2008

Ionia Management is a Greek company that manages a fleet of tanker vessels. The company was convicted of a crime and sentenced for its role in falsifying records to conceal the overboard dumping of waste oil from one of its vessels into international waters. The case is now on appeal to the federal Second Circuit [...]

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