Workers Compensation Can Be a Pain in the Butt

The Iowa supreme court overruled a lower court in the case of an employee in for a rural water district in Iowa who was injured after shaking his derriere as a greeting to a fellow employee.

The lower court had ruled that Norman Vegars was ineligible for workers compensation on the grounds that he was engaging in horseplay at work. Vegars waved his butt as a greeting to his coworker, Casey Byrd, and Byrd attempted to return the unusual greeting by bumping the booty with his truck window. Unfortunately, he was off the mark and somehow smacked Vegars in the backside with his truck bed, leading to the workers compensation claim.

While the Iowa supreme court did not rule in favor of Vegars, the court did overturn the initial ruling against him and sent the case back to the workers compensation board to determine whether the butt-shaking activity should be considered in line with the course of his employment.

NY Jets Harassment Being Investigated

An accusation of harassment by players and coaches of the New York Jets football team against a female reporter is currently being investigated. The full story can be found here.

This story brings up an important point regarding harassment. It is not just something an organization needs to worry about between employees, or from supervisor to subordinate. Harassment can also be directed by an organization's employees toward an individual or group of individuals outside of the organization - such as vendors, business partners, customers or (in this case) a reporter. (An organization's employees can also be harassed by those outside of the organization.) The fact that Ines Sainz, the reporter in question, is both female and a minority representative (she works for a spanish-language Mexican TV network) adds further depth to the harassment claims.

The NFL and NY Jets are looking into the situation and Jets management has already apologized publicly for the perceived misconduct. But the situation and investigation are far from over.