Hello All,
Here is the latest issue of “This & That” Tuesday. I hope you find it to be informative and useful.

 

King Soopers to Pay $80,000 to Settle EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit
Dillon Companies, Inc., owners of the King Soopers supermarket chain, will pay $80,000 to a mentally challenged employee and furnish other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC.

 

According to the EEOC’s suit, filed on Sept. 18, 2009, King Soopers supervisors repeatedly subjected a ten-year employee to repeated bullying and taunting because of his learning disability. The EEOC alleged that this harassment ultimately led to the employee’s termination.
Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

 

In addition to the monetary settlement, King Soopers will provide training to all of its supervisors and managers about the ADA and how to properly interact with employees with special needs. King Soopers will also make periodic reports to the EEOC concerning all complaints of disability discrimination for the next three years.

 

OSHA uses General Duty Clause to cite inadequate workplace violence safeguards
An investigation into a complaint that a worker had been severely beaten and threatened by a client of a specialty hospital in Wisconsin revealed that staff members had been assaulted numerous times. As a result, OSHA cited the employer for a serious violation of the agency's "General Duty Clause" for failing to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause serious injury or death. Proposed penalties of $12,000 were assessed.

 

In addition, OSHA cited three other-than-serious violations involving recordkeeping errors, which include:

 

• A lack of entries for lost or restricted work days due to injury or illness on the OSHA 300 logs during 2011,
• Failing to annually evaluate and inspect the energy control program, and
• Failing to conduct annual reviews and updates of the bloodborne pathogen program.
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The specialty hospital, which employs about 325 workers, consists of a long-term acute care hospital, a community-based residential facility for adults, a residential care center for children and a special education school. The specialty hospital has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, meet with OSHA's area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

 

Factoids
SHRM’s 2010 survey on employer uses of criminal background checks showed:

• 73 percent of organizations conduct criminal background checks on all job candidates
• 19 percent of organizations conduct criminal background checks on selected job candidates

 

Coffee and Lunch $$$

• 50% of the workforce spends about $1000 per year on coffee.
• 66% buy their lunch instead of making it costing another $2000 per year.

 

Fairness
When employees were asked “do you feel your company treats employees fairly?”

• Only 44% said “mostly”
• And 22% said “rarely or never.”

 

Meetings
Average time employees spend in meetings each week: 5.6 hours

 

Being Late

• 27% of employees are late at least once per month
• 16% are late at least once per week

What kind of attendance control policy do you have in place?

 

I'm so poor I can't even pay attention.
~ Ron Kittle ~