Weekly HR/Employment blogosphere roundup

I’m thinking about making this a regular Monday feature (if I can get to it every weekend).

So let’s get going.

First up:

Veteran blawger B. Janell Grenier, Esq., of Benefitsblog, (”a tax, benefits and ERISA law commentary and news filter”) has this gratifying story of how the growing recognition of bloggers and blogging has made its way to the top of the court system:

“Blog Entry Referenced in U.S. Supreme Court Case”

The reference is in a footnote in a dissenting opinion in the U.S. v. Booker decision on the constitutionality of the federal sentencing guidelines.

The blawg is Douglas Berman’s Sentencing Law and Policy Blog.

Actually, the reference is not to the blawg per se, but to an original government memorandum posted on the blawg, highlighting the potential usefulness of blogs as a means of Internet publication of documents not available through traditional research sources.

Bryan Tuk’s Employee Relations Law & News has this entertaining entry that actually suggests a few serious lessons:

“The Case of the Drooling Cook”

Bryan links to a longer story on this case via Findlaw: “Fuddruckers Loses Health Defense in ‘Drooling Cook’ Disability Case” by Donna Higgins in the Andrews Publications Food Health & Safety Litigation Reporter.

The issue: whether the restaurant chain Fuddruckers fired a prep cook because of her disability — severe stuttering — and not because the “excessive salivation” related to this condition posed a a “direct threat” to the health and safety of others because she drooled on food served to customers.

The lessons — the employer lost its summary judgment motion at least partly because of two avoidable mistakes: 1) it waived the “direct threat” defense by not pleading it as an affirmative defense in its answer; and 2) it prepared a termination notice indicating she was fired for failing to properly prepare lettuce for salads, with no mention of drooling or spitting.

If drooling really was the issue, the employer should have been up front about it throughout. Attempting to avoid the potential ADA issue by not mentioning the drooling simply made things worse by setting the employer up for a pretext argument. Because of the key role pretext plays in discrimination litigation, if for no other reason, honesty really is the best policy.

LaborProf Blog in “Faith at work” points us to “Faith In The Workplace” in Religion & Ethics Newsweekly.

The tagline of the referenced article:

We have a special report today about practicing religion at work. In this country, as corporations grew bigger and more impersonal, business and worship often became separated. Now, more and more companies are making room for religious practices. Sometimes the results have been widely praised. Other times, some employees have taken offense.

LaborProf Blog also points us to summaries of all new state employment legislation in the year 2004 from the US Dept. of Labor’s publication Monthly Labor Review.

At lawmemo.com, Russ Kunkel reports on a Seventh Circuit case making a point I thought was obvious:

“Romantically motivated favoritism is not sex discrimination” since disadvantaged employees can be of either gender.

(Obviously the point wasn’t obvious to the litigants, who saw fit to trouble the Seventh Circuit with it.)

BostonWorks.com suggests: “Start a Blog” (posted by Johanna Rothman), citing the Online Recruitment Blog (Joel Cheesman)

The suggestion is that “every company’s HR department should start a blog about their organization. Talk about what you’re doing, training, post jobs and pics of company events, etc.”

There’s been much talk about corporate blogging and its marketing benefits. This suggests the idea that such a blog might be conceptualized as an HR function, and may have significant HR benefits in areas such as recruiting and morale. How better to convey diversity than to use a blog to show diverse personalities, backgrounds and viewpoints?

Susan Heathfield at About.com Human Resources has:

“Tips for Minimizing Workplace Negativity,” wisely suggesting that “the best way to combat negativity is to keep it from occurring in the first place,” and “Eight Hiring Mistakes Employers Make: From Application to Interview.”

Problogger has this:

“Business Blogging Awards - Mid Race Commentary”

Go to the awards page, and check out the many fine blogs. Should you wish to vote for this one (please, I’m begging shamelessly here), go here (I think the criterion should be quality, not degree of “shameless self-promotion!”)

Finally, blogging and blogreading T-shirt collectors (and their significant others) may be interested in this great value:

The “Bloggers Suck” T-shirt for only $16.00 (free shipping!)

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