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Employment Law

It’s legal to punish boss/employee harasser more harshly than harasser of co-workers

07/19/2013
Supervisors can and should be held to a higher standard when it comes to enforcing workplace rules. That in­­cludes punishing a supervisor who har­­asses a subordinate more harshly than a co-worker who harasses a colleague.

Must contractors still display union poster?

07/17/2013
Q. I understand that the rule requiring private employers to post a notice about employees’ union rights is dead and won’t become law. I may be considered a federal contractor and there is a provision in my contract about posting a notice of union-related rights. Am I free to ignore that?

Can an offer letter create liability?

07/17/2013
Q. Our company recently terminated a manager who had been with us for less than three months. He just seemed not to be the right fit. Now the former employee is threatening to sue, saying he left a good opportunity to take a job with us, based on our offer and what was said in the hiring process. We did use an offer letter, which stated that employment would be at-will and that the offer letter did not constitute a contract of employment. Do we have cause for concern?

What are the pitfalls of ‘double-breasting’ to win nonunion contracts?

07/17/2013
Q. We are a construction contractor. We work union, but increasingly find ourselves losing bids because we can’t compete with nonunion companies in certain industry segments. Can we just set up a separate operation to bid the nonunion work? I’ve heard that such “double-breasting” is common practice.

National origin, language & religion: Legally managing diversity at work

07/17/2013
To achieve compliance and prevent successful discrimination claims (which could involve class-action exposure), employers must be attuned to workplace issues around national origin, religion and race. For most employers, this means training management and HR personnel to carefully consider their policy-making and daily decisions that can affect such issues.

Lounge, exotic dancers agree to settle classification lawsuit

07/17/2013
Lure, a “gentlemen’s club” in Min­ne­­apolis, has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a class-action lawsuit with its exotic dancers, who claimed they were employees, not independent contractors as Lure had contended.

New state law expands whistle-blower protections

07/17/2013
Gov. Mark Dayton has signed into law an expansion of the state’s 1987 whistle-blower act. The new Minne­­­­sota Whistleblower’s Act protects from retaliation both public- and private-sector employees who report misconduct.

Long ago comment won’t taint current legitimate disciplinary action

07/17/2013
Here’s some good news for em­ployers that promote an employee into a supervisory position not knowing she may have made racist comments in the past. As long as the new supervisor follows company disciplinary rules and HR carefully documents any performance and disciplinary problems, chances are the old comments won’t sink the em­­­ploy­­er’s defense of a discrimination claim.

Sick employee wants less overtime? Consider that a request for intermittent FMLA leave

07/17/2013
Don’t try to “create” artificial overtime for a disabled em­­ployee so she’ll be forced to use up her FMLA entitlement. That’s especially true if no one else is required to actually work overtime. Such a tactic will backfire.

FMLA: What if worker won’t return to old job?

07/17/2013
Employees who take protected FMLA leave are supposed to return to the same or an equivalent position in terms of pay, duties and benefits. But what if the employee doesn’t want the same job for some reason? Must you create a new job for her? No.