It’s time to review the mistakes, catastrophes, near misses and just plain strange stuff in the HR world in 2008.

We determined the list based on your votes — by which posts received the most attention from readers

10. You make the call: Whistleblower or backstabber? Marcy Curlee thought two co-workers were wasting too much time, so she documented their work behavior minute by minute. She was fired. The Idaho Supreme Court said there are genuine questions of whether Curlee was fired for conduct protected under the whistleblower law.

9. Don’t tell ‘Grandma’ she’s being fired. Jolyn McDonald was called Grandma by her manager at a Best Buy. The same manager demoted her because of poor performance. She filed an Age Discrimination in Employment Act lawsuit, and Best Buy asked that the case be thrown out. The court wouldn’t throw out the case, and the next step is a jury trial unless the two sides come to an agreement beforehand.

8. Fired for smoking? Court says that’s OK.The law firm where Karen Kridel worked as a paralegal banned smoking breaks for hourly employees but allowed them for salaried workers such as lawyers. Kridel continued to take two 5-minute smoking breaks per day, and she was fired for misconduct. She was denied unemployment benefits and sued to get them. The court decided she should not get unemployment.

7. Can you top these workers’ excuses for being late? No top-10 list would be complete without … a top-10 list on it. CareerBuilder.com provided the original excuses. Then, HR Blunders readers added more that they’ve heard from employees, including:

• We received a fax from an employee’s wife with this message, “Xxxxx has been real sick and can’t come in until Monday the 28th.” We were happy to see that he had such a precise timetable for when he would recover. (from J. Trent)
• We had an employee call in to say he would not be coming to work as his girlfriend might be pregnant. (from L. Greene)
• My husband had a boss at one time who called in and said he would not be in because his dog was constipated. (from R. Foley)
• I had an employee call me and say she was stuck. I asked her where she was stuck, and that I would go and get her. She said that she was stuck in life. I told her to get herself unstuck and get to work. (from Mary Sharkey)
• An employee called to say she was going to be late because she had to pick up her sister’s boyfriend who was getting out of jail that morning. No one else could go get him because his family was mad at him and her sister had to go to work. I explained that, contrary to popular belief, she had to go to work, too. (from Shirley Busbice)
• Many years ago, an employee was chronically late and always had colorful excuses. My favorite was his cow had been struck by lightning and he had to clean up the yard. He was inevitably terminated. (from Mitzi G.)
• A young lady called in to say that she took too hot of a bath and was dizzy and could not come to work until she laid down to cool off. (from Jamie)
• After a worker got in late, he explained that he’d passed out the night before and the dog drank his beer. The dog normally woke him up every morning, but that morning the dog was too hung over and didn’t get the employee up on time. (from Karen)
• Our salesman came in late to work stating his wife had left him, took all the furniture and turned off his electricity. After taking a cold shower, he accidentally locked himself out of his house and had to break in to get his car keys. This triggered his house alarm, and he had to explain when the police showed up brandishing guns. After this was over, he backed out of his driveway and ran over and killed his dog. We sent him back home, and I suggested he write and country song. (from Jackie)
• A young male employee, a newlywed, was chronically late coming back from lunch, because he would go home to “celebrate” his marriage. I counseled him regarding tardiness. One day he was about 10 minutes late returning from lunch from one of these celebratory trips home. He said he stopped to brush his teeth before he came back, dropped a tube of toothpaste and accidentally stepped on it. He explained that getting the paste back in the tube wasn’t so hard, but keeping the little lines straight was really tough. I let him return to work (that time) without a write-up. (from T. Linneweber)

6. Big court award: Tale of the bogus e-mail. Ronald Luri, a manager for Republic Services, Inc., in Ohio, was told to fire three employees, all of whom were in their early 60s or late 50s. Luri refused, saying the company could face a lawsuit for age discrimination. Republic fired him for alleged failure to follow the directives of his superiors. Luri sued. Testimony in the trial pointed to evidence tampering to try to create a record of poor job performance for Luri. A jury recently awarded him $46.6 million.

5. Hung-over employees and the Web don’t mix. This story turned out to be a hoax. Supposedly, Australian Kyle Doyle called out sick one day to work. The story then suggested that Doyle posted on his Facebook page that he was “still trashed, sickie woo,” and that his employer was not too happy when someone there found his online posting. His employer, AAPT, issued a statement claiming the story is bogus. But Facebook postings about stuff at work can still be dangerous. Just ask the young woman who posted pictures of herself and two co-workers frolicking in a sink at a California KFC.

4. You’ve got mail … and you’re fired. Media agency Carat was facing layoffs. Its HR director prepared an e-mail with a list of employees about to lose their jobs and included “message” points for managers on how people should be told they’d be out of work. The entire agency received the e-mail.

3. Liar, liar, but employee’s not fired. An employee admitted she forged a document. After an investigation by HR, the final decision was not to fire her. The reason: There were no specific rules prohibiting forgery, and the employee was afraid of retaliation by a co-worker. That’s bad enough, but this happened at the Connecticut State Ethics Commission.

2. Woman’s uniform was revealing, but her application wasn’t. Heather Kearney of Des Moines, IA, says she was fired from her job as a criminal intelligence analyst with the state Department of Public Safety for not revealing on her job application that she’d worked at a Hooters restaurant. Her employer said it was investigating her for falsification of her job application. This case will come down to a court decision on whether omitting her work at Hooters amounted to falsification.

1. Worker attacked by candy machine sues for comp. Does a company pay workers’ comp if an employee, returning from an unpaid break, injures his foot while rocking a vending machine to shake loose a stuck candy bar? While a hearing board initially awarded the employee comp, an appeals court reversed that decision.

And from everyone at HR Blunders and PBP Media, Happy New Year. We hope that 2009 is free of HR Blunders at your workplace.

The parents of Juan Carlos Payan want full benefits of $2,400 a month for six years — a total of $172,800. That’s five times the amount offered by the mine’s owner, Genwal Resources, Inc., and Rockwood Casualty Insurance Co.

Payan’s family says the miner was supporting his disabled father, mother and two young sisters in Mexico.

The companies have argued that Payan had two siblings who were also working in Utah and helping support the family.

A judge is expected to rule later this fall.

An attorney for the mining and insurance companies says Payan was only responsible for about a third of the money sent to the family in Mexico over several years, with the rest sent by his brother and sister.

The family’s attorney argued no records or witnesses can deny the family’s contention that Payan alone was supporting his parents and young sisters.

A judge has ordered workers’ comp to pay for an obese worker’s gastric bypass surgery, saying it’s compensable under Oregon law.

Edward Sprague injured his knee in 1976. He reinjured it in 1999.

Also during that time span, Sprague’s weight went from 225 to 350 pounds.

Doctors told Sprague his weight would prevent successful treatment of the knee condition, so he sought workers’ comp medical benefits for the weight-loss surgery.

The insurance carrier argued that the claim wasn’t compensable because the obesity wasn’t caused by his 1976 accident.

But the state comp board and court ruled that Sprague’s bypass surgery should be paid for by workers’ comp. The court said the injury was more than a minor cause of Sprague’s need for gastric surgery. 

Trying to keep your company’s workers’ compensation insurance premium from rising significantly? This story may be one of your worst nightmares.

MCI employee Edith Hizey was participating in a dance contest on company property. She twisted her knee, fell and hit her head.

She suffered back and knee pain.

An administrative law judge and the Kansas Workers’ Compensation Board both awarded Hizey total temporary disability and permanent partial disability.

MCI appealed to the state Court of Appeals on the grounds that the injury occurred during a recreational event and wasn’t related to her everyday job duties.

• The court also ruled in Hizey’s favor. Its reasons:
• MCI offered workers vacation time, bonuses and prizes for participating in the dance contest.
• The company benefited from the contest because it encouraged employees to remain employed there.
• MCI planned the event.
• Employees were paid for the time they participated.
• The accident happened on company property, and
• The contest occurred during regular business hours.

So, on its face, paying comp for a dancing accident may seem ludicrous. But the way this and many other states’ comp laws are set up, companies often need better arguments to deny comp other than “it was recreational” and “it wasn’t related to the worker’s job.”

You’ve heard stories about employees out on disability who get turned in by a neighbor or co-worker for doing yard work or playing sports.

Talk about getting caught with your pants down.

Well, Garrett Dalton of Naugatuck, CT, got caught too, but with a dress on.

Prosecutors have video of him running a 40-yard dash in women’s clothing and high heels while he was collecting workers’ comp payments.

Dalton faces fraud charges for collecting $5,000 in comp, according to wire service reports.

Authorities were tipped off after someone saw Dalton in a TV news report. He was taking part in a radio station contest to win Hannah Montana concert tickets. Not only did he have to dress in drag, but he also had to win a race while carrying an egg on a spoon.

Dalton is a state corrections officer. Oh, and he didn’t win the contest.

Time to play the popular HR Blunders game, “Comp or No Comp.” Here are three recent court cases in which employees sought comp for unusual accidents. Did the workers get comp? Read each case, then check to see whether you guessed right at the end of this post.

1. Does the company pay workers’ comp if an employee, returning from an unpaid break, injures his foot while rocking a vending machine to shake loose a stuck candy bar?

Here’s what happened in this case from Oregon: Maintenance worker Kaleiokalani Barela injured his foot at work. While returning from an unpaid lunch break, he tried to help a co-worker dislodge a purchased candy bar from a vending machine in the company’s lunchroom.

Barela attempted to rock the machine when he heard a sound from below.

It wasn’t the sound of the candy bar dropping in the machine. It was Barela’s Achilles tendon rupturing.

Barela sought workers’ comp. His duties did not include maintaining the candy machine, which was done by an outside contractor. Did Barela’s employer have to pay?

2. In another case, a car salesman, Clifton Roberts, was bored one day so he decided to take a ride on a co-worker’s motorcycle in his employer’s lot.

The salesman didn’t have any current customers. He took the little spin on the motorcycle while waiting for the next customer to arrive. Other employees, including the car dealer’s general manager, took rides on the bike earlier in the day.

While the salesman was riding the cycle, another employee backed a company pickup truck into him, causing the salesman serious injuries. Comp or no comp?

3. In another case, one of Hr Blunders’ favorites in the world of workers’ comp, a worker, Dwight Nichols, broke a tooth while chewing on a candy at work.

The candy was provided for employees by the company. In fact, Nichols was the employee who was often in charge with picking up the candy and making sure it was available to employees while they were working. (And if you’re interested, the snack was a Hot Tamale, a chewy, cinnamon candy.)

The worker was on duty when he broke a filling and cracked his tooth. Is dental work compensable under workers’ comp in this situation?

Answers

1. The Workers’ Comp Board ruled Barela’s foot injury was compensable because he wans’t participating in a recreational or social activity. But his employer’s insurance company, Washington Group International, appealed.

The Court of Appeals of Oregon reversed the comp board’s decision and sent the case back for further consideration.

So, while the employer and insurance company have won this battle, the employee may yet win the war by somehow proving his injury is compensable.

2. Roberts didn’t get comp.

Why? The court said the injury happened while the salesman was engaging in a recreational or social activity primariliy for his own personal pleasure.

It said since there was no work-related reason for riding the motorcycle, the salesman wouldn’t collect comp.

3. In the case of Nichols, the candy-chewer, the employer rejected the claim on the grounds the injury happened due to an activity that was recreational or social.

But the Workers’ Comp Board, and later, a state court, approved the claim! Both said the injury arose out of and in the course of employment.

The comp board said in this case, eating candy was never touted as being recreational or social. It viewed chewing the Hot Tamale as being an ordinary part of an average work day such as taking a drink of water or sitting at a desk.

What’s the take-home from all this? HRB wishes there was a definitive formula or test to tell HR pros whether it’s worth it to contest questionable workers’ comp claims. As these cases show, it’s not black and white at all; it’s just about as gray as you can get. And to make matters worse, these rulings also vary from state to state.

Here’s one question to ask those making the decision about whether to contest: Will it be worth it to spend the money on legal, administrative and other resources to fight the claim?

Has your company ever contested a questionable workers’ comp claim? How’d it turn out? Let HR Blunders know by entering a comment below.

Recently, a jury in San Bernardino County, CA, found Laura DiGiorgio guilty of workers’ comp fraud.

That, in and of itself, isn’t unusual. But DiGiorgio comes from one of those professions you’d hope wouldn’t engage in this sort of thing: She was a city police officer.

DiGiorgio said during an arrest attempt, a car knocked her to the ground, causing a back injury.

However, she failed to disclose injuries from a previous off-duty car accident, according to the county district attorney’s office.

But the case isn’t over, yet. DiGiorgio has filed a federal suit against the Riverside Police Department alleging it created a hostile work environment and denied her requests to accommodate her disabilities, according to the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

It’s no wonder many companies think twice about appealing comp cases, even where evidence of fraud turns up.

How would you reward an accident hero at your company? Lots of ideas come to mind: cash, an award ceremony, some company-wide recognition, etc.

Well, here is a Hawaii company’s reward for its accident hero: We’re not going to pay your workers’ comp.

Honolulu Disposal Service agreed that Tipasa Save was a hero.

Save was driving a company truck weighing 13,000 pounds when he hit the brakes. Nothing happened the first time. Nothing the second time. The third time his foot went to the floor with no result.

The truck was out of control, barreling down a hill at 70 mph.

Save faced a terrible choice, according to media reports: He could steer toward a flat road that was crowded with people, or he could fly over a cliff to spare the people. He chose the cliff.

The truck landed in a parking lot. Save’s co-worker in the truck was crushed to death. Save sustained injuries that have left him unable to drive.

Then the shocking action by Honolulu Disposal: The company contested his compensation claims and didn’t offer him a non-driving job.

The suit claims company inspectors found the faulty brakes two days before the accident, but nothing was done.

Now, Save doesn’t have a job, but he does have a lawyer who is suing the hero’s former employer.

To keep your workers’ comp premium down, you know it’s sometimes necessary to question what’s going on with an employee who was injured on the job.

Can they come back to light duty? Was that injury really caused by the accident? Was there really an accident?

Here’s a question you probably didn’t imagine: Should we pay to replace both of her breast implants?

Penny Richardson was in an on-the-job car accident. A plastic surgeon said her right breast implant had ruptured and the left one showed signs of rippling, so he replaced both.

The North Carolina Workers’ Comp Commission originally awarded Richardson compensation for both implants.

But her employer, Maxim Healthcare (no, we didn’t make that up) appealed. Reason: The surgeon later said the rippling in the left implant most likely happened because it was under-filled.

A state appeals court said, pay for the ruptured implant, but not the rippled one, according to wire service reports.

But one member of the three-judge panel wrote a dissenting opinion, which said, pay for both. Obviously citing aesthetics, the dissenting judge said Richardson needed both replaced to ensure the implants were “symmetrical and evenly matched.”