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What I've Been Reading This Week


Have a Second Person Present When Escorting an Employee From the Premises

When an employee gets fired, the employer oftentimes escorts that employee directly off the premises.  This article is a good reminder to have a second person present when this happens in order to avoid "he said she said" claims that could arise.  As the article notes, you don't know what an employee will say about what happened after the fact.  Having a second person present can help mitigate these sorts of issues.


Refresher on Joint Employer Liability

While not all employers face joint employer liability issues, it does routinely arise for others.  Lindsay Bouffard provides a quick refresher on joint employer liability, by way of pointing to a recent case from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that dealt with the issue.


Searching Computers for Possible Pornography

Many offices have probably had a similar issue at some point:  an employee gets an e-mail with pornographic images or when using the internet, pop up ads appear with pornography.  Once that happens, the question becomes where the pornographic images originated from.  A reader submitted a question to Business Management and asked whether the employer could search the computers of employees in the office to determine the source.  In short, the answer is likely yes.  However, this is also a good time for employers to review their computer/social media policies to ensure they have included a statement that employees do not have an expectation of privacy when using work computers.

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