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Employment Law

Court clears up confusion over meal breaks

05/13/2008
Do you have to provide employees who work eight hours or more during a shift with an unpaid meal break away from all job responsibilities? Or can you continue to pay employees while they eat, expecting them to take calls or respond to work needs? …

Be alert for retaliation after employee reports wrongdoing

05/13/2008
The Minnesota Whistleblower Act (MWA) is designed to protect Minnesota employees who are punished for reporting company practices they believe are illegal. It’s not HR’s job to determine whether anything illegal occurred. However, when an employee has blown the whistle on a company practice, HR must make sure any future discipline is warranted and not driven by an ulterior motive …

Think twice before suing your own employee for negligence

05/13/2008
Minnesota employers, take note: Courts don’t take kindly to employers that try to sue their employees for negligence as a counterclaim to a discrimination lawsuit. In fact, Minnesota law requires employers to indemnify employees for costs associated with a lawsuit filed because of the employee’s alleged wrongdoing …

Don’t ignore lawsuits! No-Show means automatic loss—And court-Ordered damages

05/13/2008
Don’t even think about ignoring an employee lawsuit. If you don’t hire an attorney and present the court with a specific defense, the judge will give the employee an automatic win and figure out what damages you must pay. And you certainly won’t be able to ignore the sheriff who comes to collect what the court said you owe …

Were professors moonlighting across time zones?

05/13/2008
Two married professors recruited last fall by the University of Minnesota (U of M) are being investigated for fraud after it was discovered they were simultaneously holding down jobs in both Georgia and Minnesota …

Receptionist delivers messages from hell

05/13/2008
Zachary Winspear joined Community Development, Inc. (CDI), a property management company in Golden Valley, as a personal assistant to company president Charles Schneider. As the two grew close, Winspear confided to Schneider that his brother had committed suicide …

What are the rules on parenting leave for small employers?

05/13/2008
Q. We are a small shop with 15 employees. One of our full-time employees who has been with us for more than five years recently announced that his wife is pregnant. He requested eight weeks’ leave after the baby is born. Are we required to give him this leave? …

Of MySpace & Money: Don’t try to muzzle millennials’ salary talk

05/13/2008

You’d never discuss how much money you make, right? Dude, that attitude is so 20th century! The 20-somethings you work with eagerly dish about salaries, bonuses and other work topics you might consider taboo. Managers tempted to forbid such talk? Don’t let them! Here’s why.

Effort to Extend Statute of Limitations on Pay-Bias Lawsuits Fails in Congress

05/12/2008
Federal anti-discrimination law gives employees either 180 or 300 days (depending on the state they live in) to file an employment discrimination claim with the EEOC. Pro-employee legislation that aimed to extend that limit much further failed in Congress this month.

Duty differences, experience enough to defeat equal pay claim

05/12/2008
The Equal Pay Act was passed to ensure that women are paid the same as men for substantially equal work. The law does allow for differences based on any factor “other than sex,” but you must be prepared to explain pay differentials in a way that clearly demonstrates why two employees in the same job receive different wages …