Re: Abuse of discrimination statues

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On 1/07/02, Sad Wife wrote:
> My husband has worked in his industry for almost 20 years.
> He has a spotless record. Since he has assumed a new
> position, he has found an employee who is incompetent. He
> has gone over and above to help her and train her. Though
> she has years of tenure with the company, it was garnered
> in another position. The position she is currently in, she
> cannot handle. He has offered to help find another spot in
> the company out of respect of her tenure. In the past year
> and a half, she has cried discrimination 4 times and had my
> husband investigated by different
> aspects/departments/individuals within human resources.
> This latest fiasco is being headed up by someone who is her
> friend and my husband is undergoing a biased review. This
> woman is of a protected class, female, over 40 and is
> abusing the protection of this class by using it as a
> crutch to not have to perform. My husband has endless
> documentation to show poor performance as well as
> intentions to help and train. I have spent the entire day
> searching out recourses for my husband. He should not have
> to tolerate the harassment of this individual to try and
> get him fired under false pretenses. What are his rights?
> We love the company he works for and wouldn't want to file
> suit or anything like that, but what are the options?
>
> Thanks in advance -

I really hate to tell you this but he really doesn't have
any. If he could prove this woman was knowingly and falsely
accusing him in order to do him harm (career damage, loss of
employment, etc.), he'd have a course of action against her
for slander, perhaps tortious interference, and/or other
claims. But as it relates to his employer, they are
obligated to investigate every complaint, no matter how
ludicrous it may seem. The problem is, proving she knowingly
lied about the harassment. That is a very high burden of
proof to meet.

If this is the fourth time this woman has cried harassment
and each of the three other complaints proved meritless,
believe me, the company has her number and they are as tired
of wasting time on this woman and her problems as your
husband is of being investigated.

Dealing with an employee like this - one who cries
discrimination/harassment as a defense to being disciplined
for legitimate performance issues - is extremely difficult.
The minute they term her, she's going to file a claim for
retalliation. It is incredibly frustrating and can take a
very lengthy period of time to set the stage to discipline
her on her performance issues and for the company to be able
to defend the retallation claim/suit that is sure to come.

What I suggest your husband do is to (a) ask to meet with his
boss AND HR jointly to discuss their strategy in how they're
going to deal with this woman going forward and (b) how
they're going to alleviate the burden of supervising her.
Obviously, this can't go on much longer for any of the
parties concerned.

Good luck.

Re: Termed..., 1/19/02, by Sad Wife.

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