Harassment and discrimination investigations in California should be conducted by the employer whenever the alleged victim contends that the wrongful conduct was motivated (at least in part) by the alleged victim being a member of any of the following classes:…

Many reasons exist to conduct an internal investigation of an employee complaint of unlawful conduct (or violation of employer’s policy). To name a few:

• Employers may need to comply with a particular law compelling an investigation.
• Employer may need to

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The federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”) was enacted in response to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals including those affecting Enron, Tyco International, Adelphia, Peregrine Systems, and WorldCom.  The Act’s “Whistleblower Protection for Employees of Publicly…

investigations should be conducted in cases where no one formally complains yet the employer has learned of a claim of wrongdoing via an anonymous tip, citizen complaint, rumor, hearsay, or third-party employee complaining on behalf of the victim. An employer…

In deciding whether an employee complaint rises to the level of alleged illegal activity or company policy violations, employers should interpret the incoming complaint very broadly and err on the conservative side by investigating anything that comes remotely close to…

Some types of employee complaints must be investigated as a matter of law, e.g., sexual harassment complaints.  Although no statutes regulate how investigations must be conducted, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) (Cal. Gov’t Code §§12900–12996)…

Because I have received many requests to provide internal training to employees on how to conduct sexual harassment investigations, I will be offering open training on the subject to anyone interested, but the training will be geared towards Human Resources…