A review of employment cases during one recent month included these topics:
- Public policy violation/whistleblower
- Breach of contract/implied covenant
- Fraud
- Defamation
- Wage/hour
- Discrimination
- Harassment
- Retaliation
- Interference with contractual relations
- Trade secret/non-competition agreements
- Workers compensation/OSHA
- Independent Contract
- Respondeat superior
- Privacy
- Arbitration
- Attorneys and attorneys’ fees
- Statutes of limitation
- And others
Here are a few recent employment litigation-related headlines:
- Sales Representatives $480,000 Wrongful Termination Award is Affirmed
- Evidence Supported Whistleblowers’ Discrimination Claim, but Not Sexual Harassment
- Undocumented Workers Had Standing to Assert Violation of Prevailing Wage Law
- Employee Who Was Threatened and Assaulted by Co-Workers Stated Wrongful Termination Claim
- Employer Could Recover Training Costs from Employee, But Can’t Recover Same from Final Check
- Housekeeper’s Award of $70,000 in Unpaid Wages Affirmed
- Employee Who Provided Customer Service and Training Related to Company Software Not Exempt from Overtime
- Employer Bears Burden of Showing Reasonableness of Layoff Criteria in Age Discrimination Case
- $1.8 Million Judgment Affirmed in Favor of Employee Discriminated Against on the Basis of Race and Gender
- Employee Who Requested Medical Leave for Depression While Working for Another Employer May Have Been Improperly Terminated
- Court Upholds $1.088 Million Verdict in Favor of Terminated Italian National
These are just a few example of the numerous, off-the wall HR exposures your business might face. None of these companies ever planned on getting in the headlines — at least not like this! As you can see from many of the titles, employment practice claims might not be frequent: but when you face one, they tend to be severe. By the way, I didn’t list headlines about case verdicts favoring employers. Although these are rare, they still end up costing companies tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, just to be “right.”
