US States News, June 21, 2007, Thursday

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US States News

June 21, 2007 Thursday 1:58 AM EST

LENGTH: 442 words

HEADLINE: CORNELL ROUNDTABLE: NEW CASE LAW MAY MEAN EMPLOYEE TERMINATIONS

BYLINE: US States News

DATELINE: ITHACA, N.Y.

BODY:

Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration issued the following press release:

A recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court may have unintended results, according to participants in the 2007 Labor and Employment Law Roundtable co-sponsored by Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research, Cornell Law School, and Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations. The decision in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Ry. v. White expanded the types of employer action that might give rise to an employee claim. The unintended result, suggested Gregg Gilman, of Davis & Gilbert, is that it now may make sense to terminate an employee rather than trying to save the employee with a job performance plan.

This was just one of the current hospitality labor law topics covered in the Roundtable, which was held in May 2007 at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. Looking at the Supreme Court's decision, Gilman, as well as Fox Rothschild LLP's Carolyn Richmond, suggested that employers now need to make a retention or termination decision as soon as they have "cause," because any delay-even one that is well meant-can help support the employee's claim against the employer.

Another session examined sexual harassment, a situation that is often difficult for employers to prevent or resolve. Despite the fact that most businesses attempt to train employees to avoid sexual harassment, a study by David Sherwyn, associate professor of law at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, showed that employers who fail to train employees regarding harassment will still prevail when an employee brings a sexual harassment complaint.

Even if employers can skip the sexual harassment training and get away with it, several Roundtable participants would still counsel their clients to maintain anti-harassment training. Ilene Berman, of Taylor, Busch, Slipakoff & Duma LLP and Joe Baumgarten, of Proskauer Rose LLP, for example, explained that if a case gets to court an employer needs to show the court that it did everything possible to prevent the harassment. Beyond that, John Longstreet, of ClubCorp, said that it's better to stay out of court in the first place by ridding the organization of sexual harassment.

In addition to the Labor and Employment Law Roundtable, Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research sponsors Roundtables in marketing, human resources, design, and real estate / finance. For more information about future Roundtables at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, please visit http://hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/events/roundtables/.

Contact: Jennifer Macera, 607/255-3101, js372@cornell.edu