Can you be liable for employment discrimination against someone who’s not your employee? Sometimes. Title VII and the other aforementioned laws prohibit employers from discriminating. These laws loosely define employers as entities with a minimum number of employees, usually 15 or more (20 or more under the ADEA). If you meet that threshold, you are […]
Laying Off Someone Over 40? Check Your Release…
Your company is about to conduct some layoffs. That’s common enough. You don’t want to be sued. So you offer the employee severance benefits along with a release. Since your employee is over 40 years old, you really don’t want to deal with age discrimination claims. So you include in your waiver any claims under […]
Seeking “Young and Fresh” Workers. Uh-Oh…
I’m back–in case you noticed an absence in the last 3 weeks. I was firmly ensconced in “Wedding Land” tying up loose ends and then celebrating as I married off my only daughter about a week ago. (Holy cow, I’m now a mother-in-law! I know I digress, but I just couldn’t resist.) I won’t keep […]
The ADEA Protects Applicants — Not Just Employees.
By now most of you know that under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) employers cannot discriminate against workers aged 40 or older. You may also know that your company practice, even a seemingly neutral one, is age discrimination if it has a disproportionately negative impact on workers age 40 and over. I’m guessing […]
619,000 Reasons Not to Mention an Employee’s Leave in a Performance Review
Can your employee’s recent absence influence his or her job performance? Possibly. What happens when it’s time to evaluate that employee’s performance? Since the absence may have impacted your operations, and may have impacted that employee’s job performance, wouldn’t it make sense to reference it? Shouldn’t you be factoring in everything when you are looking […]