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Discrimination / Harassment

Fair investigation all that’s needed to support discharge

06/24/2013
Employers don’t have to be absolutely right before disciplining an employee. They merely have to investigate first.

How risky is it to fire a pregnant employee having attendance problems?

06/20/2013
Q. An employee has been with us for less than a year, so she isn’t yet eligible for FMLA leave. Last month she missed five days because her child had a high fever. She used available PTO for the time off. Last week, she was no-call/no-show for three days. She told the supervisor she had been hospitalized because of pregnancy complications and didn’t have access to a phone and was sedated. She provided a doctor’s note that released her to return to work, but stated that she may need to be put on bed rest. The supervisor would like to terminate her because we can’t afford to continue employing someone so unreliable. Can we do this?

What happens next? An alleged harassment victim doesn’t want to come forward

06/20/2013
Q. An employee confided in a regional VP that their boss had invited a co-worker to have a drink in his hotel room while they were attending a conference. When she declined, the boss became angry. Now, the boss has reported the co-worker for leaving work early without permission. The employee doesn’t want anything bad to happen to her friend, but she can’t let this go without telling someone. The co-worker refuses to come forward herself out of fear of retaliation. What should we do?

New law permits veteran preferences in private sector

06/20/2013
Public employers in Minnesota have been able to give employment preference to veterans for years, but private employers that favor hiring vets have always run the risk of facing discrimination claims from other applicants who lack military experience. A new state law gives some limited protection to private employers with hiring policies that give preference to hiring veterans.

Transferring harasser won’t necessarily stop harassment

06/20/2013

Recent, highly publicized sexual abuse scandals have shown that hiding the problem by simply transferring abusers often doesn’t work. The same is true for supervisors with a penchant for sexual harassment. Problems often crop up again, despite a “fresh start.”

Undocumented workers’ best witnesses may be other undocumented workers

06/20/2013
Former employees who are un­­documented or illegal immigrants and claim they have been discriminated against based on their country of origin can sue, even if the em­­­­ployees they are comparing themselves to are also undocumented.

How to thwart bias lawsuits: Have supervisor who did the hiring also handle firing

06/20/2013
Here’s a tip that can help prevent successful termination lawsuits: Set up your system so that the same individual or individuals who make hiring decisions also make the final termination decisions. It will help you prevail in court if the fired employee tries to sue you for discrimination.

Minnesota Supreme Court clarifies workplace sexual harassment rules

06/20/2013
The Minnesota Supreme Court has issued a ruling that ­clarifies what employees have to show in order to win a sexual harassment case under the MHRA. It concluded that employees who work in a sexually hostile work environment don’t have to lose pay or benefits to win a case. Nor is it a defense that the harasser was an equal opportunity harasser who targeted both men and women.

Obscenity, drunk-dialing: No unemployment

06/20/2013
In a win for common sense, the Court of Appeals of Minnesota has reversed an unemployment compensation award to a supervisor who used obscenities at work and then drunk-dialed a subordinate more than once.

Beware firing worker who sleeps with the enemy

06/20/2013
Here’s a situation that should send you straight to your attorney’s office. If you fire an employee because you discovered her spouse works for the competition, you may be violating the marital status discrimination clause in the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA).