If you are an adult reading this piece, it is almost impossible that you may not have seen or heard someone from your friends and family suing their employer. According to Hiscox insurance research, most US employers have a 12% chance of being sued by their employees, and this situation gets even worse for smaller businesses.
Whether the claim is valid or not, it gets very frustrating for employers as it costs them big litigation fees and precious time and hurts their brand and prestige in the market. This scenario can be a death sentence for the new business owners as they strive to establish themselves in a highly competitive environment with limited resources.
To help you avoid getting sued, we have compiled a list of the most common reasons why employees sue their employers.
Work-related injury:
As a general rule, employers are required to pay for work-related injuries suffered by employees. A work-related injury is an accident suffered by an employee while performing a task on behalf of the employer, whether inside the office premises or outside in fieldwork.
Once an insurance company rejects the claim, employers have to face lawsuits from employees. Though employees are usually insured through workers’ compensation, a stringent procedure is followed to determine whether the injury is work-related.
This is where it gets technical to determine what is work-related and what is not. If you’re facing a similar scenario, it would be an excellent idea to get legal help from specialists in the field to help devise employment agreements in a manner that protectsyou against employee lawsuits.
Illegal Interview Questions:
The first mistake that an organization can make to invite a lawsuit is not knowing which questions are illegal in a hiring interview. According to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), any questions unrelated to one’s ability to perform the job areforbidden to ask.
In an interview, it is illegal to ask a candidate about their: Age or genetic information, Country of origin, gender or sexual orientation, Disability, Marital status or pregnancy-related, Religion, Race, ethnicity, etc.
However, there are exceptions only when the Government requires employers to ask about race, age, and other protected statuses.
Law Violation:
Violation of the law is not always intentional. Instead, violation sometimes can be purely unintentional due to unfamiliarity with changes in the law. However, ever this violation is enough to suffer severe consequences and invite heavy fines from regulators. At times such a situation can exploite by own employees and result in lawsuits.
Firing without grounds:
Whether you are a right-to-work employer or at-will employer with the power to terminate any time, firing someone without giving a reason is one of the most common reasons employers face lawsuits.
Almost everyone thinks of themselves as an ideal employee, regardless of the performance, and thinks of the firing as wrongful termination. Thus, if you ever fire someone without giving a reason, they will probably make their own. If not, then their lawyers will.
Therefore, it is a must for every employer to maintain a record of all documentation, including performance reports, reviews, and complaints, etc. This will ensure that the employee cannot browbeat you into gaining undue advantages.
Poor timing:
Poor timing to remove someone from his job. Even for a genuine reason, can be the basis of a lawsuit against the employer. Suppose an employee file a complaint against one of their superiors about workplace harassment. Following closely on a different ground.
It will not be a big deal for a seasoned lawyer to create a story by connecting the two incidents.
Discipline discrimination:
All employers must set equal expectations from their employees and treat them fairly regardless of their designation and association with the firm. When a manager fails to follow a similar code of conduct for everyone in an organization. It is noticing by other employees faster than a manager might expect.
Thus, an employer must ensure a consistent policy for all employees to acknowledge a specific behavior, give incentives, and punish breaches.
Harassment:
Lawsuits about workplace harassment have increased proportionally in recent times. You must in mind that offensive jokes or occupational comments are tantamount to workplace harassment.
As an employer, you must maintain decorum and professionalism while speaking with your employees to avoid making an offensive comment. If you have a habit of passing remarks casually. Which can perceices offensive with a third party. They can use against you at a time when you least expect them.
Thus, it is highly encourages to avoid foul language and maintain discipline not to become vulnerable to future employee lawsuits.
Failure to follow own policies:
You can have the best policies globally, but they mean nothing. If they only exist on paper but aren’t complite with and followed by own employees and managers. Even if all company policies are devising withthe best interests of their employees in mind. If they’re not enforced,it can be a tool used by employees against you.
For instance, if a manager punishes an employee for breaking a specific rule and avoids doing the same to a friend, that will provide a basis for a lawsuit.
Docking Pay:
Employers may at times feel empowered to dock. Pay to punish specific behavior or to recover the damage done to equipment or property; in reality, they absolutely cannot anchor payment for any reason.
Similarly, employers cannot decide additional overtime for an employee. Other than what the law dictates, and an employee cannot waive their right to get paid overtime. In either of the cases, an employer must be ready to face. The litigation if he chooses to do any of these two acts.
Conclusion:
No matter which industry you operate in and how fair an employer.However, if you stay away from the reasons mentioned above. You can significantly reduce the chances of lawsuits against your company.
