Category: Negligence

Workers’ Compensation Coverage for Remote Employees’ Injuries:  What Happens When Every Day Is Bring Your Child (and Pets, and Neighbors) to Work Day?

Workers’ Compensation Coverage for Remote Employees’ Injuries: What Happens When Every Day Is Bring Your Child (and Pets, and Neighbors) to Work Day?

Workers’ compensation laws have been in effect in the United States for over a century providing benefits to employees injured on the job.  For many years, “on the job” meant injuries that occurred at an office, factory, store, or other site used exclusively for work-related purposes and over which the employer had a significant degree of control.  After COVID-19, with...

Quirky Question #218, Minnesota Ban-The-Box

Quirky Question #218, Minnesota Ban-The-Box

Question: We are a private employer in the State of Minnesota and are expanding rapidly.  In years past, we have received hundreds, sometimes thousands, of applications for each position advertised.  In an effort to increase efficiency in the identification of qualified candidates, as well as in preparation for an anticipated round of hiring in the New Year, we plan to...

Quirky Question # 165, Employment Cases Before the U.S. Supreme Court

Quirky Question # 165, Employment Cases Before the U.S. Supreme Court

Question: This question is not especially “quirky.” I know that last year, you described the important employment cases that the U.S. Supreme Court was going to consider in the following year. I’ve seen a lot of press recently about the Walmart-Dukes case. What other employment cases will the Supreme Court be considering next term?

Sexual Harassment and Negligent Hiring, Can Same Conduct Justify Two Claims, Quirky Question # 152

Sexual Harassment and Negligent Hiring, Can Same Conduct Justify Two Claims, Quirky Question # 152

Quirky Question #152 One of our employees complained of sexual harassment. We investigated, though admittedly not as promptly as we should have. We discovered that the harasser had engaged in some seriously problematic conduct. Our investigation also revealed that the harasser had engaged in similar conduct at a prior employer and previously, at our company, with a different employee who...

Strip Search, Quirky Question # 127

Strip Search, Quirky Question # 127

Quirky Question # 127: Our company runs fast food restaurants.  Recently, we received a call from a local police department, advising us that a patron had just had a wallet stolen during a visit to one of our restaurants.  The officer provided a description of the suspected thief, matching very closely the appearance of one of our female employees who...

Negligent Credentialing, Quirky Question # 121

Negligent Credentialing, Quirky Question # 121

Quirky Question # 121: Our organization is responsible for evaluating the credentials for employees at certain medical facilities.  I have reason to believe that one or more of the individuals we have referred out may have been less qualified than we were led to believe.  Does that present any risks for our organization?

Disclosing Information Regarding Past Felony, Quirky Question # 38

Disclosing Information Regarding Past Felony, Quirky Question # 38

Quirky Question # 38: Our company is a food retailer.  We hired a convicted sex offender, who, after serving time in prison for his felony conviction, had been released.  Given that he had “paid his debt to society,” we felt that we should not refuse to hire him because of his prior conviction.  Moreover, because the job for which he...

Company Liability for Employees’ Cell Phone Use While Driving, Quirky Question # 37

Company Liability for Employees’ Cell Phone Use While Driving, Quirky Question # 37

Quirky Question # 37: Our company employs a number of salespeople who spend a significant part of their time driving between customer appointments.  Our sales manager keeps track of their schedules and often calls them when he knows that they are driving between appointments, as this is a convenient time to check in with them.  Do you see any problems...

Quirky Question # 26, Background Checks

Quirky Question # 26, Background Checks

Quirky Question # 26: We are desperately trying to hire someone for a position we have had open for far too long.  Perhaps our standards have been too high because we haven’t been able to find the right candidate.  I recently interviewed a very impressive candidate and would like to extend him an offer.  I have not been successful in...

Racist Ideas, Quirky Question # 16

Racist Ideas, Quirky Question # 16

Quirky Question # 16: I am both disappointed and embarrassed to report that one of our employees is an outspoken White Supremacist.  His views are abhorrent to me personally, as well as to nearly all of our company’s employees, both minority and non-minority.  The organization to which our employee belongs advocates violent conduct toward minorities.  Given that fact, should we...