Category Archives: Training

Employees Required to Prevent ID Theft

Personnel Policies, Training

A CVS pharmacy employee threw prescription forms in the dumpster behind the store in Houston. A Radio Shack worker in Corpus Christi dumped customer credit applications. EZPAWNS employees throughout Texas threw away customers’ bank statements. And the Levelland police found more than 4000 customer records in the garbage containers behind Select Physical Therapy. These were not isolated incidents, because according to the Federal Trade Commission, Texas ranks fourth in the nation in identity theft.

The Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, was not pleased by these incidents and has started prosecuting these businesses and others under Texas’ new Identity Theft Enforcement Act and other recently-enacted laws to protect people from identity theft. Businesses like yours can be fined between $500 and $50,000 for improperly disposing or disclosing sensitive customer information, such as

  • Credit and debit card numbers
  • Social Security numbers
  • Bank account information
  • Mother’s maiden name or other personal identifying information
  • Tax forms
  • Passwords
  • Dates of Birth
  • Account numbers

These types of information often appear on receipts, applications, bank statements, checks, personnel files, medical forms, and in discarded computers.

What should you do to protect your business from identity theft exposure? As I often say in this blog and in my training presentations to businesses throughout the Panhandle of Texas, as with most legal problems in your business, you have to take four steps to avoid litigation and prosecution for identity theft exposure: Continue reading Employees Required to Prevent ID Theft →

Training your Employees

Training

How about some sobering statistics for employers?

  • The average jury verdict for sexual harassment cases nationwide was found to be $1 million in a 2002 study titled “The Changing Nation of Employment Insurance”.
  • That same study found that the average jury verdict for wrongful termination cases (such as discrimination) is $1.8 million.
  • The average cost to settle any lawsuit is $300,000, according to that same study.

Granted, these numbers include verdicts from states, such as California, where the juries have apparently never met a plaintiff they don’t want to reward with a big verdict. But even in Texas Panhandle, the land of more conservative jurors, it is clear to me after almost 20 years of practicing employment law that employers are at risk in the courthouse.

Continue reading Training your Employees →