James Citta has sued the Seaside Park, NJ, Police Department claiming harassment.

Citta claims he was told he would never be promoted because of his weight. He underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2001 to lose weight, but he claims the harassment continued.

He also says he was retaliated against for issuing parking tickets to firefighters and lifeguards and that a doctored photo showing him in a Nazi uniform was distributed at a Borough Council meeting.

Citta went on disability leave in spring 2007. He was granted permanent disability effective Jan. 1, 2008. Press accounts haven’t stated the reason for the disability coverage.

Given Citta’s weight, his attempt to address the problem, the claims about the doctored photos and disability coverage, this case is already complicated.

But wait, there’s more.

Citta was named a defendant in many of the 14 excessive force lawsuits filed against the Seaside Park Police Department between 2005 and 2007. The borough’s insurance carrier has settled 12 of those lawsuits for more than $2.7 million according to the Asbury Park Press.

Citta was use-of-force training officer for the department. He was in charge of instructing police to follow state guidelines on how to use force to subdue subjects and ensuring excessive force wasn’t used.

So, when you have a sticky HR situation, just remember this case and be glad you don’t have to be one of those who try to untangle it.

Few companies these days can afford unproductive employees. What would happen if HR found an employee who sat in his office all day doing nothing and got paid a full-time salary?

For starters, the person might be given something to do, or the position might be eliminated.

But that’s not the case for Randall Hinton, an employee of New York state’s government.

He sits at a desk doing little else for eight hours a day and is paid $93,803.

Hinton, a Native American, says he’s being discriminated against because of his national origin and retaliated against for having sued the state years ago. He’s filed a lawsuit against the state.

His job has been director of investigations for the state Insurance Fund since February 2002. However, he claims he hasn’t investigated anything or directed any other employees’ investigations because his superiors are blackballing him.

Hinton sued Gov. George Pataki’s administration 10 years ago, alleging discrimination, according to the Times Union. At the time, he was chief of investigations at the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and refused to leave his post to make room for a Republican appointee.

An official claims friction developed between Hinton and the DEC because he wanted to go to the police academy to become a sworn DEC officer, but hadn’t taken required civil service tests.

As part of a settlement, Hinton was guaranteed state employment as a director of investigations. He was moved from DEC to the Insurance Fund.

Hinton claims he hasn’t been given meaningful work because some leftover members of Pataki’s team still control the Insurance Fund in Democratic Gov. David Paterson’s administration. His former boss says those in charge told him not to let Hinton handle anything of substance.

Hinton was assigned to supervise a few customer service representatives. He complained that the task wasn’t appropriate for the director of investigations. Those employees were regrouped, and now Hinton’s only official duty is to sign one person’s time sheet every two weeks.

The Insurance Fund did recently offer Hinton oversight of private detective agencies hired by the fund. But Hinton dismissed the offer because he didn’t want to do contract assurance and work for an administrator who was in a entry-level management post.

E-mail set him off

The Times Union reports some of his former colleagues say Hinton was obsessed with becoming a cop. Hinton says he attempted to become an environmental conservation officer because that would allow him to retire to his tribe as a law enforcer.

If Hinton has been sitting around for seven years now without much to do, what caused him to take action now?

In November he got an e-mail from his manager that said the Insurance Fund wanted to recognize “the significant contributions and considerable role of Native Americans” and that Gov. Paterson had issued a proclamation for Native American Month.

Hinton says he wants his dignity back. For now, though, he doesn’t know how he’d get through his “work” day without his iPod.

Let us know what you think about this story in the Comments Box below.

Why are employees reluctant to speak up about improprieties where they work? Retaliation is feared, as a municipal employee in Florida is claiming in a lawsuit.

Danilo Benedit, a procurement supervisor for the city of Coral Gables, wore a wire to help police investigate the city manager’s cover-up of questionable credit card charges.

Now he’s filed a lawsuit claiming the city violated the Florida whistle-blower laws that protect government employees who report illegal activities.

Benedit hasn’t been fired from his job, but he claims he’s been subjected to an increasingly hostile work environment, according to the Miami Herald.

His lawsuit lists a five-month delay in his performance evaluation and receiving his first negative one ever as retaliatory acts against him.

Benedit also claims he’s been ostracized by co-workers and has been unable to complete his job functions because they are keeping critical information from him.

The lawsuit alleges the city posted an ad for his job position.

City Commissioner Ralph Cabrera says Benedit’s job was downgraded from a director’s position to an officer position similar to what had been done in another department. He added that Benedit was allowed to apply for the new position.

Cover-up investigated

Last year, after City Manager David Brown’s credit card expenses were criticized in a local weekly paper, Brown asked Benedit to help backdate receipts that would show he reimbursed the city for two questionable charges months before he really did.

Brown was charged with a civil violation of public records laws. He resigned his city position under pressure.

Brown also asked Benedit to falsify documents related to a city project and to award a contract to a firm that wasn’t the lowest bidder.

Benedit claims his problems at work come from fellow employees who are still loyal to Brown.

Now Wal-Mart says it’s settled 63 similar cases, which will cost between $352 million and $640 million, depending on how many claims are submitted by eligible workers.

Trial courts must approve all the settlements.

Wal-Mart faced 76 wage cases in courts across the country.

Just weeks ago, the company settled a class-action lawsuit alleging it cut workers’ break time and that its employees worked off-the-clock. That settlement will cost Wal-Mart $54 million.

Under the larger agreement, Wal-Mart will use electronic systems and other measures to ensure its compliance with wage-and-hour policies and laws.

The settlement hasn’t made one particular group happy. Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director David Nassar says the company is settling the cases before the new presidential administration takes over.

Workers in California may think twice now, after a recent state supreme court ruling.

Good Samaritans who try to rescue an accident victim can be sued for damages, according to a 4-3 opinion from the court.

The state’s shield against liability for emergency help applies only to people providing medical assistance.

Lisa Torti pulled her co-worker and friend, Alexandra Van Horn,  from a wrecked car and in the process allegedly injured the woman, leaving her permanently paralyzed.

Torti said she’d seen smoke and thought the car was about to explode. She pulled Van Horn out of the car just before emergency crews arrived.

Now, Van Horn’s lawsuit against Torti can go to trial.

Wal-Mart will pay up to $54.3 million to settle the lawsuit in Minnesota.

About 100,000 current and former hourly employees who worked at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores in the state from September 1998 to November 2008 are included.

Employees claimed they were forced to work without pay so Wal-Mart could meet its profit and productivity goals.

One worker, Debbie Simonson, said she was asked to straighten her area of a store “off the clock” before and after her shifts for two years.

Wal-Mart has been hit with similar lawsuits, including one in Oregon where employees were forced to work unpaid overtime between 1994 and 1999.

Wal-Mart said its policy is to pay every worker for every hour worked and managers who don’t abide by that are subject to discipline, including being fired.

Deborah Smith was manager of the restaurant at the Hilton Minneapolis. In her lawsuit, Smith alleges that one night she walked into the banquet room to find the hotel’s upper management having an orgy.

She claims that, after complaining about the orgy, “a campaign of harassment and retaliation ensued against her,” according to the Pioneer Press.

The suit states that, as the night manager of SkyWater restaurant, Smith was praised for her performance, received raises and trained other employees.

But on the night she allegedly found the orgy, the suit claims the hotel’s beverage manager told her “she would be fired, and he would make sure of it.”

Smith says she complained to HR but didn’t get any help.

Smith is accusing the hotel of sex discrimination and sexual harassment. She also claims she was retaliated against because she complained.

The suit doesn’t name a dollar figure, but says Smith lost in excess of $50,000 and is seeking punitive damages as well.

Susan McBride alleges her co-worker’s perfume made it difficult for her to breathe and impossible for her to do her job.

A U.S. District Judge rejected the city’s attempt to have the lawsuit thrown out, saying McBride “has produced evidence that her breathing is significantly restricted” by the co-worker’s perfume, according to The Detroit News.

The judge said it’s not clear the city took reasonable steps to accommodate McBride’s condition.

McBride is seeking unspecified damages.

The city argued McBride “is not disabled because she is not substantially impaired in a major life activity.”

But the judge said McBride does present a potential claim under the federal disabilities law.

Have you ever had an employee complain about a co-worker’s perfume? You can tell us about it in the Comments Box below.

Imagine this: You provide an employee with a computer for work purposes and have a policy against using it for personal means. The employee uses it to harass someone, and now you’re facing a lawsuit.

We’re not making this up — here’s what happened in a recent case: 

Thomas Kobinsky and David and Patricia Sigler were neighbors. One day, David yelled at Kobinsky for allowing his child to urinate in the Siglers’ yard.

After the incident, someone anonymously placed ads for a business allegedly run by the Siglers that they didn’t own. Someone also signed up the Siglers for various subscriptions.

Police traced the source of the harassment to a computer at CUNA Mutual Insurance and found mailings and products in Kobinsky’s garbage can at work that had been ordered for the Siglers.

The Siglers sued CUNA, alleging negligent supervision and training. They argued that CUNA had a duty to prevent its employees from using company computers to harass others.

CUNA claimed the negligence argument lacked merit.

Lawsuit thrown out

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals agreed with CUNA and threw out the Siglers’ lawsuit.

The judge concluded that the Siglers didn’t show it was foreseeable that CUNA’s employees were likely to use company computers and access to the Internet to cause harm, specifically in this case to harass someone.

The court also said that even if CUNA had been negligent, the injury was too remote from the negligence. CUNA had no relationship with the Siglers.

Another interesting note about this case: The Siglers tried to use CUNA’s strict computer rules for employees against the company. They argued that because CUNA disciplined 14 of its employees in 2003 for Internet Technology related offenses, CUNA was aware of a foreseeable risk due to employee misuse of computers. The court didn’t buy that argument.

In effect, CUNA didn’t owe a duty to people with whom it didn’t have a connection to protect them from harassment from an employee using a company computer.

This case turns out well for companies: The court threw out the lawsuit.

But what if their employee had harassed another CUNA worker? Is it time for companies to update their policies to reflect that harassment can take place via computer? Let us know what you think. You can tell us your thoughts via the Comments Box below.

Sigler v. Kobinsky, Wisconsin Court of Appeals District IV, No. 2008AP29, 11/6/08.

HR pros have enough to do without worrying about what employees are putting on their MySpace pages. But when social networking Web sites intersect with the work world, it’s a different story.

A federal court has thrown out a teacher’s lawsuit against his former employer that claimed the school district retaliated against him for exercising his First Amendment rights on his MySpace page.

The teacher created a MySpace page that he used to communicate with students about homework. He claimed casual conversations he had with students on the Web site allowed him to better relate to students.

Web page had more than homework tips

But there was a problem: School officials asked him to shut down the site after allegedly finding pictures of naked men on it and concluding that the teacher had used the site to conduct inappropriate conversations with students.

Instead of closing the account, the teacher created a new page.

The district suspended the teacher and refused to renew his contract for the following year.

That’s when he sued, noting that he’d used his Web page to express his opposition to the Iraq War.

The court threw out the lawsuit saying there was no causal relationship between his post about the war and the district’s decision not to renew his contract.

The court also noted that:

• it wasn’t unreasonable for the school district to find the teacher’s conduct on the MySpace page to be disruptive to school activities, and
• the teacher couldn’t show that the district had violated his freedom of association right because “there is no evidence in the present case that MySpace, as an organization, purports to speak out on matters of public concern.”

Does your company have a policy about employees’ social networking Web sites? Let us know what you think about this case and  companies’ need for such Web policies today in the Comments Box below.

Spanierman v. Hughes, U.S. Dist. Crt. CT, No. 3:06CV01196, 9/16/08.