The Ft. Hood tragedy dominated the news and the blogs this week. The Word on Employment Law with John Phillips shares his thought on workplace violence, and Sindy Warren, at the Warren & Hays Blog, reminds employers that national origin discrimination is illegal, even when an employee fits a particular profile.
This week also brought some interesting news about age discrimination. Mary Keating’s Maryland Employment Law Developments comments on a recent New York Times op ed debating whether age claims have second-class status to other forms of discrimination. Philip Miles, on his Lawffice Space blog, is shocked that in this down economy, the EEOC is poised to release statistics that the number of age charges filed in 2009 has fallen by 7%.
Happy 40th birthday Sesame Street. Two lawyers who have done work for the Sesame Workshop and other Jim Henson entities share their memories with Zach Lowe at the American Lawyer.
Jonathan Segal, writing at BusinessWeek.com, shares his top 10 things not to say while firing an employee.
Paul Secunda, at the Workplace Prof Blog, discusses the Employment Non-Discrimination Act – banning sexual orientation discrimination – being a “top priority” for the Obama administration.
LaborPains shares how the SEIU teaches its members to talk about the Employee Free Choice Act.
The Washington DC Employment Law Update links to OSHA’s recently published H1N1 guidance website.
Workplace Investigations, on what makes an investigation thorough.
Workplace Horizons reports that Congress is considering extending COBRA coverage and the premium subsidy.
The Overtime Advisor reminds employers that private employers usually cannot use the services of unpaid volunteers. For my thoughts on the issue of when private employers can get away with not paying a volunteer, see Do you know? Unpaid internships.
Kris Dunn, The HR Capitalist, thinks that if you use profanity at work you should think twice before you file that lawsuit claiming you were offended by others’ workplace shenanigans.
Dennis Westlind, at World of Work, reports that that the EEOC’s ability to issue subpoenas after it has issued a right to sue letter has been upheld.
Bob Sutton thinks that there are 21 things that great bosses do.
The Evil HR Lady offers some advice to a retiring employee seeking severance.
Finally, the Email FAIL Blog has yet another example of why people need to be careful before clicking the send button (link is SFW, but its click-thru might not be).
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