DISCRIMINATION 101

DISCRIMINATION 101, by L D Sledge, JD

President Lydon, B. Johnson signed title VII of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, color and natural origin. This act is enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, (EEOC), which may initiate a complaint on its own, or it may receive complaints from individuals or groups and take action on it.

Over the years, the act has been expanded to include age discrimination, disability and genetic information. A large body of jurisprudence (cases), based on lawsuits in this area, has created the guidelines to follow and there are guidelines established by the EEOC in each of these areas. They have expanded into areas such as retaliation for filing claims or whistleblowing and harassment, all of which have produced substantial damage awards for the plaintiffs. It is a minefield for the unwary. The small business must have a competent employment attorney on board or available if questions arise.

Huge awards have been granted to complainants against businesses for violating these guidelines. Every small business must learn how to avoid these problems, for they can literally destroy one's business. I will particularize these problems and their solutions in future blogs.

At Will Employment

AT WILL EMPLOYMENT, By L D Sledge, JD

Most employers feel secure because they think they have the right to fire any employee at will for any reason. Wrong. With Title VII of the Civil Rights act gone virile with discrimination law suits for sex, age, race, religion, and a plethora of other “rights violations”, no employer is safe. Should you decide to offload an employee, for reasons you feel are necessary, the employee, feeling injured or in some way mistreated, will inevitably consult with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for a shot at bringing you down and making some nice pocket (or retirement) money. If that employee feels mistreated, the remaining employees may feel the same and this impacts morale and productivity. It has that ripple effect.

How do you avoid this and assure that your status of AT WILL will be maintained in a lawsuit? The nemesis of the AT WILL status is always the Implied Contract. Never let it be implied by your words, deeds, writings or actions that the employment is permanent. (You will love it here? You have a great future with our company…etc.” On the contrary be very positive in language in your business profile, job description, employment contract, your application, your employee handbooks, and in every writing that it is unequivocally AT WILL, and have the new hire sign every document that this is totally understood. Even define any terms, including AT WILL.

Avoid any probationary period. This can be interpreted as made permanent once the period has passed.

What is Negligent Hiring and Retention?

Hire or retain an employee whom you know or should have known had a criminal record or a tendency to injure another and you are risking all you have ever worked for. Tallahassee Furniture employed a man in the yard and let him drive the truck. Then they sent him out to delivery furniture, which required that he enter the homes of the customers. He delivered a sofa to a customer who gave him a TV. Later that night, after work, he returned under the pretense to get a receipt for the TV to prove he didn't steal it. She let him in, for he had been a representative of the trusted store. He attacked and raped her. Judgment against Tallahassee Furniture for $2.7 million. He had a record of violence.

Juries have zero tolerance for employers who are careless in hiring, allowing high risk people to enter the homes of customers, resulting in injury. Juries give compensatory damages (award those damages that are provable such as lost income, medical bills, even pain and suffering, etc.). On top of that, if the offense is particularly shocking, they award punitive damages to punish the defendant and set an example. Most states have punitive damages, and aggressive lawyers inflame juries to award monstrous verdicts. Witness the multi-million punitive damage award in the infamous McDonald's spilled coffee case. The largest punitive damage award in negligent hiring I have seen was for $40 million.

How can you avoid the possibility of this happening to you? We can guide you through this minefield. Go to www.nofailhiring.com. Buy the book No Fail Hiring, and schedule a workshop where you will learn to become a hiring master.

L D Sledge, JD

Why No Fail Hiring

CEO's and upper management often delegate the time consuming business of hiring to a junior, with little guidance or plan in mind except just to hire a person competent to do a job, they hope. Management doesn't have time. They fail to realize that quality employees = quality production.

Most CiEO's innately know the vital importance of the task, and usually have no clue that there is a specific technology in hiring that will spot the good ones and the bad ones. It is a daunting task, and a dangerous one.

When a business starts, the entrepreneur hires the first employee--himself. The goals, purposes, plans and polices and ideal scenes must be clear to start. Then, to expand, he/she hires someone to take on duties that must be delegated so that attention may be put on creating the business. From there the success of the business depends on these employees not just doing their job, but being loyal and having the company's success as a primary consideration. This factor depends on more than leadership and orders. It depends on the quality of the employee. One who will do a stellar job and not sue you.

Suppose the employee is lazy, or even criminal. How can you tell at the time of the hire?

Have you ever heard of Negligent Hiring and Retention? Did you know that the average jury verdict is $1.6 million dollars? Did you know that the lawbooks are filled with huge judgments against small business for sex, age, pay, and disability discrimination, as well as sex harassment cases? Later blogs will lay these problems out clearly.

This is where No Fail Hiring comes in. Buy the book, take a workshop, remove the guesswork and become a hiring master. Check www.nofailhiring.com.

L D Sledge, JD

Let me introduce myself

I am L. D. Sledge, co-author of No Fail Hiring with Patrick Valtin. As a successful attorney for forty three years, I have the experience needed to assist small businesses in hiring the just right employee and avoiding the disaster of having the wrong employees. I have personally had employees who turned on me and as a result I lost my practice. It is my goal to teach, in blogs, workshops and consultations, how to pick winners and sidestep the legal dangers all too prevalent in hiring and managing employees.

Today's litigious environment is a minefield for the unwary businessperson who wants to make an honest living by applying skills, resources and energy in this risky entrepreneurial world. There are enough worries just handling the day to day business without having to sweat legalities and the possibility of violating some federal or state law. Today the business terrain is littered with the bones of entrepreneurs who ran afoul of bad employees who sued and obtained horrendous judgments from juries using the punishing tool of punitive damages, often damaging the business beyond repair.

My blogs will hopefully shed some light in these difficult areas. I will never give legal advice in these blogs. Consider my viewpoint that of a realistic teacher who wants you to succeed. Stay tuned. I hope to make it interesting as well as informative.

Go to www.nofailhiring.com. Buy our book, No Fail Hiring, go to a workshop and become a hiring master.

L D Sledge, JD