I have previously written about how I feel that the litigation in the United States is out of control, especially in certain parts of the United States and that lawsuits result in massive amounts of payments to people for things that just kind of happen to all of us.
I suppose I should consider myself lucky to be in North Carolina because I run a small to medium size business where at any given point in time I will be employing 20-50 people on various work projects that we have going on. I sometimes have to fire people on these jobs either for not turning up, constantly being late, dereliction of duty, or simply not being good at their jobs. A few times some of these individuals have tried to get workers compensation from me but once I presented the case to the judge about their missteps as an employee that was the end of it.
Just so you know in North Carolina if someone applies for workers' compensation their last employer who they worked for in some situations is expected to contribute to their "salary" until they find a new job. I have big problems with this law because it encourages people to get fired, claim victimhood, and then just do nothing for a living and still get paid. I realize that there are actual situations where this sort of thing is necessary but unfortunately since the government is in charge of who gets it and who doesn't, it is all but guaranteed to be done incorrectly.
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A friend of mine fwd me a story because he was aware of one of my recent workers comp cases in the past year about someone who claimed wrongful termination and not only did she get the compensation, but a jury awarded her $11 million in damages.
Equinox is a string of extremely high end fitness clubs in New York that probably charge so much to go to them that I would never even contemplate attending. I get plenty of fitness in the yards at my jobsites so I don't need it anyway, nor do I have any desire to be part of the NYC life, which I have visited on a number of occasions and consider it to be extremely overpriced as well as waaaaay too crowded.
An ex-employee took the workers comp thing to a really high degree and won in court.
The woman, Röbynn Europe, claimed she was wrongfully dismissed from her job and here's the kicker. She claimed that it was because she is black and because she is a woman. From the little bit that I read into this, I can't believe that the jury awarded her anything because there was plenty of testimony that indicates that her firing was deserved.
According to time sheets as well as multiple witnesses Robynn turned up to work late 47 times before she was given the boot. I see this as the business having a tremendous amount of patience towards her. You don't get to turn up late to my job sites more than twice without getting a "final warning." Someone who was habitually late would be fired almost immediately on my sites and it isn't because I am a slave driver either. When someone is late to any job that is team oriented, their absence makes everyone else's job more difficult and when I get rid of these people, the dedicated team members are actually pleased when it happens. What is the point of keeping someone around if their presence is actually a detriment to the rest of the coworkers as well as the team?
Robynn made claims that she was mistreated because of her race and I have no idea if that is true since I didn't care enough to dig deep on this one but let's all think about what New York City is like for a second ok? This is one of the most racially diverse cities on the planet and if there is any racism there, there certainly isn't going to be an official company policy about it.
The one claim that was made in the blurb I read was that a supervisor, who happened to be white, called her "lazy" and "untrustworthy" on a number of occasions. How Robynn's lawyers were able to turn this into a race thing defies all logic. She was employed there barely a year and she was late 47 times??? If that isn't justification for calling someone lazy and untrustworthy I don't know what is.
I think that we are going to start to see situations, especially in big cities like New York City that seem to take litigation to a completely absurd level, of people getting employed somewhere with the ultimate objective being to get fired so that they can sue. I mean, of course people are going to pursue this especially if there is a precedent of this sort of thing being rewarded.
I just count another one of my lucky stars in being thankful that I don't live in a ultra-liberal place like New York because I really can't imagine that sort of stuff flying down here in North Carolina. Call me a backwoods redneck if you want to but I can't imagine how the jury or the lawyers came up with that much of a payout for a personal trainer at a fitness club. That's more money that most people ever make in their lives and she worked there for around a year.
That's just insanity folks. Identity politics and of course lawyers, are destroying certain parts of society. You could offer to give me an extension of the type of business that I already own but say I had to operate in NYC and I would turn it down. It isn't worth the trouble.