HR/Employment Blogosphere update for June 27, 2005
June 27, 2005
Hot Fun in the Summertime EditionIt’s getting really hot here in St. Louis. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “The Heat Index could reach 105 in the city today. The air will be unhealthy for sensitive individuals. This heat will remain with us through at least mid-week.”
No, that’s not me laying on the beach gazing over my foot. I’d be in the water, as I have little use for sunbathing since I burn in minutes. (Nor do I paint my toenails.) I am looking forward to hitting the pool this weekend for some laps, though.
Mainly just hanging inside in the A/C and working on a massive summary judgment project. Did take the boys to see the Cards whoop the Pirates in a four-hitter, three homer shutout Saturday evening, with Chris Carpenter pitching all nine. From the Post: “St. Louis, an NL-best 47-27, has homered eight times in the last two games while outscoring the Pirates 16-1.” (I know last week I said I was burning out on baseball, but with stuff like this, ya gotta pause and yell: GO CARDS!)
More seriously on the local front, I woke up to a Saturday paper full of stories about a hugely dangerous fire in a mixed industrial-residential part of south St. Louis City, in which miraculously there were no serious injuries or deaths, although canisters of industrial gas were exploding and flying through the air like rocket-propelled grenades (OK maybe more like mortar shells; pretty scary either way).
If you have employee safety responsibilities, this is another reminder of the importance of crisis and evacuation planning. (”After the . . . employee spotted the fire and hit an alarm button, the 22 employees and two customers evacuated the facility within 90 seconds. All escaped injury.”)
By the way, this beach photo, which I found on flickr (see credit below), is a great example of The Rule of Thirds.
This week’s update topics:
- Labor Law & Unions (labor arbitration)
- Employment Discrimination (good employer cases)
- Other Employment Law (reference immunity)
- HR (how-to on investigating harassment; recruiting series begins)
- Health Care (Competing Models of Health Care)
Labor Law & Unions
Arbitration Blog writes about a couple more cases dealing with the seemingly endless challenges of the interplay between arbitrators and NLRB (“Prediction: NLRB will defer re information requests”), and arbitrators and courts (“Who decides legality of the contract?”). And yes, of course there are three-way contests as to who decides: NLRB, court, or arbitrator. Been there . . . it wasn’t pretty.
Employment Discrimination
Jottings By An Employer’s Lawyer brings us nicely detailed analyses of two cases featuring very favorable outcomes for employers, cases that may be helpful to employer advocates, especially in the cases’ respective Circuits:
- A sexual harassment case from the Eighth Circuit, in which the court found that a far-from-perfect employer investigation was sufficient because the harassment ceased.
- An age discrimination case from the Third Circuit, in which the court rejected a plethora of pretext arguments on its way to upholding summary judgment, in what Jottings calls “a master class on the difficulties a plaintiff has” in meeting the “heavy burden to establish pretext.”
Other Employment Law
Employee Relations Law & News has this: “PA Employers Get Immunity to Disclose Work History”
Many states have similar provisions protecting employers that give honest, good faith references.
Employers reviewing their policies on giving and getting references should review local laws with counsel. Even absent such statutory protection, there is often “qualified immunity” from defamation. The legal underpinnings of the conspiracy of silence are questionable, IMHO (see my article, “Solving the Reference-Checking Puzzle”).
Many states have similar provisions protecting employers that give honest, good faith references.
Employers reviewing their policies on giving and getting references should review local laws with counsel. Even absent such statutory protection, there is often “qualified immunity” from defamation. The legal underpinnings of the conspiracy of silence are questionable, IMHO (see my article, “Solving the Reference-Checking Puzzle”).
HR
About.com’s Susan Heathfield offers a nice overview of “How To Address an Employee Sexual Harassment Complaint.” I love this introduction:
- “Difficulty: Hard
- Time Required: As Much As Necessary”
As an attorney who has worked in and studied the law of sexual harassment, I have a few comments about this piece:
Contingent Workforce.org tips us off to: “The Science of Recruiting – Part 1: Making First Contact,” by Lou Adler.
Adler says modestly that in this series he will “look at every skill and technique necessary to be a great recruiter.” He promises: “At the end of it all, you’ll have a sense of what you need to do to take your performance and success as a recruiter up another notch or two, or maybe more.”
Grounds for some discussions at recruiting.com, perhaps?
Speaking of my new pals at Recruiting.com, two points:
Health Care
(photo by hot tea via flickr)
- It’s just a start. When setting policy, training, and dealing with a harassment complaint, consult a knowledgeable attorney. The cost of defending these cases is too high not to.
- I disagree with this: “12. Make decisions about whether sexual harassment occurred. ” I say: “Make decisions about whether company policy was violated.” What’s the difference? The first is a legal term of art, and you shouldn’t be making legal conclusions that may be used against you. Also, conduct may fall short of meeting the legal definition, yet merit company action because it violates a prophylactic policy that sets an employee conduct standard stricter than the legal definition of harassment.
Contingent Workforce.org tips us off to: “The Science of Recruiting – Part 1: Making First Contact,” by Lou Adler.
Adler says modestly that in this series he will “look at every skill and technique necessary to be a great recruiter.” He promises: “At the end of it all, you’ll have a sense of what you need to do to take your performance and success as a recruiter up another notch or two, or maybe more.”
Grounds for some discussions at recruiting.com, perhaps?
Speaking of my new pals at Recruiting.com, two points:
- Am I mistaken to include recruiting here under the topic “HR”? Does this cross a boundary of fierce professional identity? If so, don’t go after my head, you headhunters, just let me know. Have mercy. I’m just a lawyer.
- Recruiting.com is growing into a great group blog with the addition of two new members, Craig Silverman who is currently the Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Hireability, and the anonymous Masked-Blogger. Coincidentally, the other night I received a most enlightening comment to my Wal-Mart post by a masked blogger. Of course, anonymity is a funny thing. Might be someone else who chose the same name.
Health Care
CathColl.net picks up on — and adds her thoughts to — Managed Care Matters’ post on Competing Models of Health Care
(photo by hot tea via flickr)
Related Posts
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California harassment ruling latest example of unhealthy divergence between state and federal discrimination law
Yet another blogroll addition; highlighting listing of past and likely future NLRB flipflops
Eighth Circuit harassment opinion follows spirit, not letter, of Supreme Court cases on affirmative defense
HR/Employment Blogosphere update for July 11, 2005
`Sphere: Related Content`
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Comment by Michael
George, I never realized that this was a blogspot blog. It’s looks pretty good. However, you might want to replace the Blogger comments section with Haloscan. It’s pretty easy and Haloscan allows trackbacks which I don’t see here. Regards MK