Monthly Archives: December 2008

Employer’s Ten Commandments

Management,

If you are a Texas employer, you may be wondering whatever happened to the concept of employment at will, where you could hire, discipline and fire an employee for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all. You are worried that the pat on the back that you once gave for encouragement is now considered sexual harassment. You may feel like you are fighting a workplace war and you seem to be losing.

You have good reason to be worried. Jury Verdict Research reports that the median discrimination verdict in the United States was $252,000 in 2007. In 2008, we saw the largest single plaintiff employment law verdict ever–$46.6 million awarded to a supervisor who refused to fire three employees in their 60s and was then fired himself. With the economy in the toilet, more employees will lose their jobs, which always results in an increase of employment litigation for wrongful termination of some sort.

But the business owners and managers that I talk to everyday as an employment lawyer can’t keep up with the new laws and regulations that they have to follow. They understand that the laws are designed to bring fairness and equality to the jobsite, but unless the laws are merged into some kind of simplified and usable form, they find compliance almost impossible.

How can you run your business without spending all your time on employment issues? These are the ten basic principles that you and your managers need to follow to comply with most employment laws and avoid a costly lawsuit: Continue reading Employer’s Ten Commandments →

You Can’t Ask That!

Hiring,

Here’s a quick list for you to print out and slide under the glass on your desktop. These are the questions that you can’t ask an applicant when you are interviewing them. Okay, you can ask them. Nobody’s stopping you. But you won’t ask them if you are smart, rational, prudent and consider a discrimination lawsuit against you or your company a big waste of your valuable time, money, energy and emotion.

Don’t ask:

  • Where are you from? Where did you grow up? What kind of accent is that? (national origin discrimination)
  • When were you born? When did you graduate from high school? How old are you? What is your birthdate? (age discrimination)
  • Where do you go to church? Do you believe in Jesus? What do you do with your Sundays? (religious discrimination)
  • Are you married? Do you have kids? Where does your husband work? Who takes care of your kids after school? (gender discrimination)
  • Have you ever been arrested? What for? (possible racial discrimination)
  • Are you a U.S. citizen? (national origin discrimination)
  • Have you ever made a worker’s compensation claim? Have you ever been injured on the job? How’s your back? (disability discrimination)
  • Do you belong to a union? Have you ever belonged to a union? Are you sympathetic with union members? (violation of the National Labor Relations Act)
  • Have you ever used illegal drugs? Have you ever had a problem with alcohol? What medications are you on? Do you have any physical or mental impairments? What’s wrong with your arm, leg, hearing, speech, etc.? (disability discrimination)
  • Are you pregnant? Are you planning on having kids? (pregnancy and/or gender discrimination)
  • Have you ever declared bankruptcy? (discrimination under the Bankruptcy Act)
  • What clubs and organizations do you belong to? What causes do you support? (this could reveal illnesses, religious beliefs, family issues, marital status, race and other grounds on which you could be accused of discriminating)
  • Is English your first language? Do you know that we have an English-only policy? (national origin discrimination)
  • Do you have elderly parents or an illness in the family that would take you away from work? (disability discrimination)

If this seems like a whole bunch of rules to remember, try focusing on this one rule: If your question isn’t related to how the applicant could perform the job, don’t ask it.

Your Opinions: What Makes a Good Boss?

Management

I recently wrote a blog post about what it takes to be a good boss. According to the statistics counter on this blog, it has been one of the most widely read entries. I’m glad it has been well-received. But now I want to know your anecdotes, opinions, and lists of the qualities that good bosses possess.

As I said in my post, it is my belief that good bosses have integrity, are great communicators, provide recognition of good work and encourage new ideas and innovation. Because of my faith, I also believe good leaders should reflect the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. For more on being a Christian employer, click here.

So what about your opinion of good leadership? Post a comment here and let me know what you think. Just click on the word “comment” at the end of this post and tell me: What do you think makes a good boss? What qualities should every manager be striving to achieve? Who has been a good boss in your life and what set that person apart? If I get several comments, I’ll post a top 10 list of good boss qualities according to my brilliant blog readers! Thanks and I look forward to reading your comments.

Preparing for Possible Changes in Employment Laws

Discrimination, Personnel Policies

The elections are over and it is clear that with the Democrats in charge of the White House and Congress, things are going to change. Whether you celebrate or mourn that fact, if you are a business owner or manager, you need to prepare your business for some of those changes.

There are a number of laws affecting employers that have a good chance of passing after the new government takes office in January. These include:

  • The Employment Nondiscrimination Act, which would amend Title VII to add sexual orientation as a protected class, much like religion, age, national origin, race, disability and gender. President-Elect Obama’s transition team has already added sexual orientation as a protected class in their hiring, along with gender identity.
  • The Fair Pay Act, which will negate a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that substantially crippled the filing of any Equal Pay Act claims by imposing a draconian statute of limitations. The Fair Pay Act would again ensure that women are paid the same rate as a man for performing a job that requires the same skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions.
  • The Healthy Families Act, which will require employers with 15 or more names on the payroll to provide full-time employees with 7 or more days of paid sick leave per year. This would be the first paid leave ever required of employers by the federal government. Obama and Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden cosponsored this bill while they were in the Senate, so passage of this act or a similar one is likely.
  • The Equal Remedies Act and Civil Rights Act, which could remove the current caps on damages in discrimination cases and prohibit the employer from making the employee agree to arbitrate these claims before the dispute arises.
  • The Employee Misclassification Prevention Act, which would raise the penalties for employers who call their employees “contract labor” or “independent contractors” to avoid paying taxes and benefits on their workers.
  • The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is expected begin enforcing ergonomic regulations that were written during the Clinton years. These regulations would affect white-collar workplaces that have seldom had OSHA on their radars at all.

Many other laws affecting employers are expected to be introduced and passed while the Democrats are in power for at least the next two years. That information should light a fire under you to audit your employment practices now to make sure that they are currently compliant and as forward-thinking as possible.

For example, take a look at your pay policies. Are women in your workplace paid less than similarly qualified men? Do you pay anyone on a “contract labor” basis?

Do you shy away from hiring anyone that “seems gay”? Do you fire in haste or anger without clearly documenting all of the nondiscriminatory reasons? Do you rely on an arbitration agreement that you force all of your employees to sign and think that agreement will protect you from a runaway jury?

If you answered any of these questions “yes” or if you suspect any of your other employment practices may be questionable, this is the time to have someone knowledgeable about employment law conduct an audit of your practices and policies to correct the mistakes you are making now and to prepare for the changes to come.