Kris Dunn at the HR Capitalist has a thought provoking post on the value of EAPs that includes the following comment:
Want to get a bunch of HR people nodding their heads? Make a statement about the value of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) our companies offer, usually as part of the Life Insurance suite.
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A jury ruled in favor of two former Detroit police officers Tuesday, awarding them $6.5 million in a whistleblower lawsuit that focused on allegations of misdeeds by the mayor’s staff and extramarital affairs by the mayor himself. One officer alleged he was fired because of his investigation into the mayor’s security detail’s cover up of mayoral misconduct. The…
The so called safe harbor from prosecution/sanction for immigration law violations arising from an employer’s handling of No-Match letter places a heightened burden on employers and may only exacerbate an already growing worker shortage. It is a poor effort to solve the problems created by a lack of consensus on a national immigration policy. It has collateral…
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued new regulations that create a "safe-harbor" for employers who either receive a (i) no-match letter from the Social Security Administration or (ii) written notice from DHS questioning an I-9 Form. Employers who follow the protocol and timeline set forth in the regulations will not be charged with…
I received a call from a very irritated client who just hired a new book keeper only to find out the new hire had just been arrested for embezzling from the same prior employer who gave her a glowing reference. Ethics aside, what are the legal parameters for giving a reference?
Frankly, misleading references involve a developing area of the law that is based on negligence theories. To be liable for negligence, you must owe a duty to someone, breach that duty, and the breach must cause damage. The best way to avoid being sued for a reference is not to give one.
No state imposes a duty on an employer to provide a reference on behalf of an employee. However, if a business chooses to provide a reference, it must do so uniformly and may be liable to the employee, other businesses or third parties if the reference is negligent. Negligent references are either inaccurate, materially incomplete, or both.
Pennsylvania law gives employers some protection in lawsuits by employees; provided, the employer acts in "good faith" when it discloses information. Lack of good faith must be established by clear and convincing evidence that the employer disclosed information:
However, the employer’s "opinions" about the quality of work are not generally considered to be slanderous or libelous, unless the opinion implies undisclosed defamatory facts as the basis for the opinion. For example, stating that someone is dishonest is an "opinion" which implies undisclosed and potentially defamatory facts. Stating that someone did "poor quality work" does not.…
Continue Reading Employment References In Pennsylvania: The Truth or Nothing at All
It won’t surprise you that I read other Blogs. There is a posting on Evil HR Lady about a new website called eBoss Watch where you can anonymously rate your boss and search other employee’s ratings. I think the sight is largely an effort to capitalize on wave of "bullying" articles that have appeared lately.
The…
The OFCCP reports coordination of EO Surveys with statistical analysis techniques to predict "systemic discrimination" in order to target its compliance audits. The result from using data from 3,723 establishments that responded to the EO Survey, together with the findings from 2,651 completed compliance evaluations was that 89 cases of systemic discrimination were found. In 2006, the OFCCP recovered a record $51.5 million for over 15,000 workers. Of the recovery, 88% was collected for cases of systemic discrimination in the application process because of unlawful employment policy or practice.
Government contractors are selected for audit in several ways including the use of a mathematical model that predicts the likelihood of a finding of systemic discrimination. The model analyzes data from five years of OFCCP compliance evaluations to formally identify and characterize relationships between reported EEO-1 workforce profiles and findings of discrimination.
I have been involved is several of these style OFCCP audits and the approach is the same. The audit is triggered by an anomaly in a business’ EO Survey which shows a statistical disparity in either hires or terminations. For example, the percentage of minority applicants differs by more than 80% from the percentage of minorities hired (the four-fifths rule). The investigation into the disparity in the hiring process follows the road map set out in the OFCCP’s Compliance Manual as follows:…
Continue Reading OFCCP Audits Focus on Systemic Discrimination
Obtaining a release from an employee that waives the myriad of federal and state employment law claims is an art and not a science. It requires balancing contradictory government regulations, harmonizing competing employee relations goals, and cajoling, a more than likely, disgruntled employee.
When a business pays money to a departing employee, it wants the matter over. However, the patchwork of government regulations and varying court decisions interpreting them make it difficult to obtain that degree of certainty. Sometimes employees challenge the validity of a release and try to pursue their claims. In some cases, regulations even allow an employee to keep the money while suing the employer.
The legal standard for obtaining a valid release generally involves assessing whether the employee’s waiver of claims was "knowing and voluntary". In the case of claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the U.S. Department of Labor used 9 pages of regulations to define when a waiver is knowing and voluntary. In other cases, Pennsylvania courts assess the knowing and voluntary release of discrimination claims based on the following factors:
The incidents of corporate raiding and mass employee defections to competitors are on the rise as businesses scramble to find and retain high quality employees. Under any business model, it is far easier to recruit away a group of experienced employees with a "book of business" than it is for an employer to start from scratch.…
It starts out as a normal workday in the HR department of XYZ company…You just deleted 54 spam e-mails, listened to 27 inane voice messages, and refilled the empty coffee pot (again). You look out the window to the parking lot (because those are the types of scenic views HR managers get in the corporate hierarchy). You…
