April 26, 2011

Prepare for Severe Weather Events

Filed under: General HR Buzz — Tags: — Monica @ 2:28 pm

Record numbers of tornadoes have hit the Midwest this season. Last Friday, and EF4 tornado ripped through neighborhoods and commercial areas, leveling homes, damaging businesses, shutting down the St. Louis airport and leaving wide areas without power for days. Having a severe weather policy and response plan can help your company respond when disaster strikes. The plan should address communication as well as roles and responsibilities in the event the workplace is damaged. Keeping a list of contact numbers for vendors and employees in a safe offsite location is one example of proactive thinking.
Employers should remember too that even if the work location does not have damage, employees may be impacted at home. Employees may need time off to clean up debris or deal with insurance companies. They may need to temporarily relocate until damage is repaired or power restored. Supporting employees in these circumstances is not only the right thing to do, but will pay dividends in employee morale and loyalty.
The CDC website has resources to help you develop a severe weather response plan that helps ensure the safety of your employees. http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/tornadoes/after.asp

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June 11, 2008

Tattoos “Un” Covered by ‘Freedom of Religion’?

Filed under: Title VII — Tags: , , , , , — Paul @ 7:42 am

I took an introductory marketing solicitation call yesterday from a very nice and knowledgable rep from HRMorning.com (http://www.hrmorning.com/). In the course of our conversation I took a look at their website (which is relatively new having been launched early in 2008) and was duly impressed. So much so that I am offering the highest form of a bloggers compliment . . . I am re-publishing some content (giving full credit of course to HRMorning.com — okay count em, that’s two plugs. See below for a recent HR Legal News posting on HRMorning.com (three plugs) dated 6/10/2008 by Sam Narisi.

You’ve got a policy against facial piercings and visible tattoos. Sounds fair. But what happens when an employee claims to be a member of the “Church of Body Modification?”

That’s what happened to one employer when a worker claimed her religion required her to display “facial jewelry” at all times. The company said no. She spent most of her time dealing with customers and was bound by a strict dress code.

She sued, but the company won. The court ruled it was OK to require employees to look professional in front of customers (Cite: Cloutier v. Costco).

Going the other way

The keys to victory in that case: 1) business need, and 2) a consistently enforced policy. Not all companies have been so lucky in court.

In another case, an employee was told to cover tattoos he had on his arms. He refused, because they were religious symbols. He was fired, and he sued.

In court, the company claimed that he dealt with customers so it had a legitimate business reason to ask him to cover up. But the company had no written policy banning employee tattoos, and the guy had been working for six months before anyone mentioned the problem. The company lost the case and eventually paid a $150,000 settlement (Cite: EEOC v. Red Robin Gourmet Burgers).

What you need

So when can you ask employees to hide their tattoos, even ones with religious significance? When:

  • you have a consistently enforced policy
  • allowing exceptions to the policy would cause a hardship (such as when employees are visible to customers, or co-workers complain about body art that’s offensive), or
  • safety is an issue.

Finally, with all religious accommodation requests, it’s smart to take them seriously and treat all employees’ beliefs as legitimate — yes, even members of the Church of Body Modification get legal protection.

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