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Employment Law

Poor performance review and improvement plan alone aren’t signs of retaliation

08/12/2008
Good news for managers and supervisors: Giving an employee a poor performance review and then placing the employee on an improvement plan isn’t an adverse employment action on its face. Employees can’t successfully sue unless a pay cut, lost benefits, a lost bonus or some other tangible, negative results accompany that poor evaluation or improvement plan …

Root out subtle but pervasive hostility—It’s harassment even if it’s not severe

08/12/2008
Tell your managers to take note: Allowing one or two employees to poison the workplace, even with low-level harassment, is dangerous. A constant barrage of racially tinged comments may warrant a jury trial if someone claims the workplace is a racially hostile environment. The charge: The harassment is pervasive, even if it is not severe …

Judge finds Wal-Mart guilty of 2 million violations

08/12/2008
Wal-Mart’s class-action woes are reaching cosmic proportions. Dakota County District Judge Robert King Jr. in June found the mega-retailer guilty of 2 million violations of Minnesota labor law. At the rate of $1,000 per violation, that could add up to $2 billion in fines …

Same-Sex marriage and employee benefits in Minnesota

08/12/2008
In light of the recent California Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriages in that state and legislation in Massachusetts that, in effect, legalizes same-sex marriages, Minnesota employers may wonder whether they now must provide benefits to same-sex partners of employees who were married in those two states. The short answer seems to be no …

Can we ask current employees to sign noncompete agreements?

08/12/2008
Q. Is it possible for an employer in Minnesota to enter into an enforceable noncompete agreement with an existing employee? …

Document why new talent got higher pay than existing staff

08/11/2008
You can pay more for a new hire than you pay those who hold similar positions. Just make sure you document exactly why newcomers deserve a higher wage or more benefits. You can do that by showing the new hire has more experience, education or specialized knowledge, or that the candidate wouldn’t accept an offer unless the salary and benefits met or exceeded what he was making elsewhere …

Extra work, harsh treatment may not be reverse discrimination

08/11/2008
Resentment may run high if employees feel like they’re picking up the slack for other employees they perceive as doing less than required—especially if they believe management isn’t making others pull their fair share because of race or nationality or some other protected classification. But that doesn’t necessarily amount to reverse discrimination …

Take steps to ensure employees aren’t exposed to porn at work

08/11/2008
Perhaps because controlling Internet access to pornographic images isn’t technically difficult, and because word tends to get around pretty quickly if a co-worker is showing porn to co-workers, courts now are clamping down more on employers that don’t do enough to make sure the workplace is not a sexual cesspool …

Before assuming you must accommodate under ADA, evaluate disability and ability

08/11/2008
The ADA requires employers to reasonably accommodate disabled applicants and employees within a tight set of parameters. But an employer only has to offer reasonable accommodations that allow a disabled employee to perform the essential functions of a job. Employers don’t have to create new jobs or restructure jobs to such an extent that essential functions are dropped …

FIU loses discrimination suit

08/11/2008
A Miami-Dade County jury ruled that Florida International University (FIU) discriminated against Sean St. Louis when it fired him in 2004. If the verdict stands, an already cash-strapped FIU will have to pay $2.5 million to St. Louis …