Let’s take a few minutes and talk about an employee lawsuit.
Hopefully, you will never be sued by your employee; it is not fun. The average employee lawsuit can cost about $60,000.00 to defend. Next, we will list some of the common grounds that employers end up getting sued over.
- Sexual Harassment
- Bullying in the Workplace
- Whistle Blowing Retaliation
- Failure to Pay the Final Paycheck
- Failure to provide rest and meal periods
This article is going to give you an idea of what your employee’s attorney is telling your employee before the paperwork even gets filed.
- When complaining do not do it verbally, always complain in writing. The wetting can be done by delivering a formal complaint, or it can be done via email or even texting. The bottom line is always complain in a way that will you provide you the employee with a record of the complaint.
The reason for this is quite simple, management is a team and when asked by an attorney did thus and so happy it is not beyond the management team to say the employee never talked to me, or never complained to me about this. So as an employer if you start getting complaints in writing, I would strongly encourage you to start paying attention. Do your due diligence to get the issue settled as quickly as possible. - Keep a diary of every event and make sure that you keep it accurately. Write this journal as soon as you can after each event and make sure to get the details. Times and dates, and the people involved. You may also want to keep track of any witnesses. When talking about your boss be professional, you need to remember that this diary could become evidence and may be read by other professionals. Employees may also be encouraged not to leave the diary any place that is clearly visible to your employer. Given the above employers should have a policy that provides employees with and non-expectation of privacy policy. From time to time it is a good idea for employers to do inspections of the workplace, this will ensure that employees are aware that nothing is private in the workplace.
- There are two keys for employees to be aware of when considering an employee lawsuit. Number one, witnesses and number two documentation that is in writing either handwritten or text or emails. Anytime that your employer acts in an inappropriate manner either by threatening you with termination because you reported him, or touches you in a way that is not proper make sure that you talk to whoever saw it. The only way that employers can short circuit this is to make sure that you are not conducting yourself in an inappropriate way.
- Do not pretend to be an attorney, be aware that just because something may good on in the workplace that is not in good taste does not mean that your employer has violated any labor laws. Call an attorney and talk to them before you do anything.
- Keep your cool, should you explode in front of a room of fellow employees you have just lost your case and could be fired. So keep your cool follow steps one through 4 and let the games begin in a professional manner.
Employers in California need to be aware that there are a lot of attorneys out there would love to take you to court. Some are professional and will not waste your time or theirs when there is not a valid case. But on the other hand, there are many attorneys out who are willing to work by the hour.
CES Today has been helping employers since 1997, and we have seen it all.
When it comes to Cal-OSHA Consulting, we are the experts. We are also great Labor Law Consultants.
We are the only consulting firm that provides both an employee handbook and a formally written injury and illness prevention program with our basic membership.
Call us today and schedule a free consultation. we take great pride in the fact that we have been very successful in keeping our clients away from an employee lawsuit, and Cal-OSHA fines.