Rising Claims - San Antonio Business Journal:

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And San Antonio is no exception. Officiale with the say that trend is reflected intheier numbers. For fiscal year 2008, endingy Sept. 30, the EEOC had 95,402 totalo charges filed with the upfrom 82,792 filed in fiscal year 2007. “We see an increaswe in every single area,” says Justine Lisser, spokeswomajn for the EEOC, headquartered in D.C. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based onan individual’ds race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability and retaliation for reporting and/or opposiny a discriminatory practice.
The Commission is also tasked with filing suitss on behalf of alleged victims of discrimination against employerx and acting as a judiciary for discriminatiobn claims brought againstfederal agencies. But local attorneyxs say employers may have some cause for They say some employers are taking more riskx inlaying off, and even firing, employees to cut overhead Karen Monsen, a partner with the San Antonio offic e of LLP, says employers are letting people go withoutg having a history of documentatiob on why that employee is bein g terminated.
“I’m seeing employers being more aggressive aboutfiringb individuals, folks that have slipped by in the past, not showin up on time and missing deadlines,” Monseb says. “They are just not putting up withit anymore.” Lisseer says it is no surprise that the numberf of charges her agenc y has seen increased in the last fiscal She adds that she expects to see thoswe number up for fiscal year 2009 as well. “Thew EEOC is seeing an increas e incharges nationwide,” Lisser says. “We have seen this particula r increase inage discrimination.
” In fact, according to EEOC in fiscal year 2008, 24,582 charges were filed regardingb age discrimination suits. That number is up from 19,1032 in fiscal year 2007. Whilse Lisser says there is currently no hard data pointing to the factorss leading tothe increase, she says tighy economic times may be part of the problem. “When times are employers target theirolder workers, because they have the highedr salaries,” she says. Lissed says the EEOC also saw a big jump in the number of charges filed relating to retaliationand gender. Retaliationn charges, she says, are those filed against an employet who has allegedly retaliated against an employe e forsome reason.
Those numbers jumped from 26,663w to 32,690 in fisca l year 2008. As for those charges relating to the EEOC reports those numbers jumpedfrom 24,826 to 28,372 in fiscal year 2008. Stephen Romero, an attornety with the San Antonio officeof , says that with the increasw of claims, the EEOC is more diligengt in how it is handling its investigations into chargesx filed with the agency. “The EEOC is beinvg much more thorough and sending out requests for additional information (from the employer) on top of the regular position statement that is preparex and submitted on behalf of the employer,” Romero While Texas is an “at-will state,” terminating employees withoutr documentation can be a risky move.
Accordinyg to the , the basic rule of Texas employmentf lawis employment-at-will, which means withoug a statute or an expres s agreement (such as an employment contract) to the either party in an employment relationshipl may modify any of the terms or conditiona of employment, or terminate the relationship for any reason, or no particular reason at all, with or withourt advance notice. “(Employers) are less concernedd about the lack of record they have establishecd and I think that is Monsen says.
“It’s tough on employers because they have been givingg these peoplea pass, they haven’t been writinf them up and they haven’t been keeping good notes of violationw of company policy. So it gets pretty While clearly an employer can fire its Monsen says keeping records and documenting those policy violations is a matter ofgood practice. “If you have been giviny them goodreviews ... and then out of the blue they are told they have been late too oftej and they have been late every day for two all of a sudden itlooks funny,” she “Employers should be keeping these records.
It’zs just good, safe practice and it builds a good Romero says that with the tight economic situation, employees who are terminate are more frequently questioning the reasons behind thei termination. “Employees are questioninyg actions taken bytheir employer,” he says. “Even in good timex and especially inbad times, it is very important to documenyt your employee’s performance. If you have that documentation, it is much easier to defend. If you are terminating an employeefor misconduct, you better have it documenteds in their file.” Monsenh says some employers are also not aware that keepinvg electronic data after an employee is let go is critical.
“Theu are sending all the computers back to IT and IT is cleanintg them up and sendinh them back out to the field and all this evidenced is being destroyed and could turn into a huge land mine for thesse companies who have not thoughtabourt that.” While employers may need to worry about fighting a discrimination suit, concerns about protecting tradwe secrets has become an issue. Monsen says some employeee go out and try to compete with the A lot ofemployers don’t have good protection in she adds. “These employees will have in their possession customert lists or documents that contain trade secretds or otherconfidential information,” she says.
“I am seeing tons of that and my client s are having to dodamage control.” Romerl says he tries to ensurwe that his clients have documents in placs to ensure that an employede who has had access to confidential information can not use that data after being fired or laid off by the company. “Wes are very proactive on the fron t end to get confidentiality agreements fromthosee employees,” Romero says.
“In my I haven’t seen an uptick but I wouldn’tg be surprised if that was the next wavein