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Employment Law

Employee complained about discrimination? That doesn’t excuse shoddy or dangerous work

04/15/2011

Employees who file EEOC or other complaints about discrimination are protected from retaliation for doing so. But that doesn’t mean employers aren’t allowed to discipline employees who have complained—if the situation legitimately calls for discipline. You must, however, be very careful to document the underlying reasons.

Accommodate disabled workers, but don’t accept mediocre job performance

04/15/2011

Yes, employers must reasonably accom­modate employees with disabilities. But that doesn’t mean they have to provide a perfect workplace—or tolerate subpar performance. Instead, make the accommodations that are reasonable. If the employee still can’t perform her job’s essential functions, you can terminate her.

Class action could pair employees, contractors

04/14/2011
Do you try to cut labor costs by hiring independent contractors to do employees’ jobs? If so, consider this risk: Both employees and independent contractors who do the same or similar work could join together and sue over unpaid wages and overtime.

Not all religious accommodations are mandatory

04/14/2011

Employers aren’t obligated to honor religious accommodation requests if doing so would significantly hamper operations or inconvenience co-workers. For example, accommodating a request for every Sabbath day off could effectively invalidate a collective-bargaining seniority system and create a real hardship for the other employees who would have to work instead.

After Google search revealed that applicant smokes and drinks, can we refuse to hire him?

04/14/2011
Q. We did a Google search on someone we wanted to hire and we found several pictures of the individual smoking and drinking alcohol at bars. We had wanted to hire this employee for a position in which he will work closely with clients and now we are having second thoughts. We certainly do not want him to smell like smoke when he meets with clients. Is there any legal problem with not hiring him?

Can we fire? Doctor added 3 months to injured worker’s restrictions

04/14/2011
Q. One of our employees broke his ankle while on vacation last summer and he has still not fully recovered. He has been on work restrictions from his physician since the accident, and those restrictions limit his ability to perform job duties that involve walking, standing or lifting. We have accommodated the restrictions, but we recently received a note from his doctor asking us to extend the restrictions for another three months. Do we have to do that or can we simply terminate the employee?

Does the FMLA grant leave for foreign adoptions?

04/14/2011
Q. One of our employees is adopting a 5-year-old Ethiopian child and has asked for leave to travel to complete the adoption and bond with the child when they return to Minnesota. Does this count as FMLA leave, since it is not leave within the first year of the child’s life? If it does, is the travel time eligible for FMLA leave?

EBSA moves to rescue ‘orphan’ retirement benefits

04/14/2011
The DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Admin­is­tra­tion (EBSA) has sued Parkland Hotel Investors—once one of the Twin Cities’ biggest commercial financiers—in an attempt to distribute the company’s 401(k) assets to 96 former employees who participated in its retirement plan.

3M to settle age bias suit rooted in quality control plan

04/14/2011

3M Companies appears poised to settle a high-profile age discrimination suit. Earlier this year, the company filed a joint motion for preliminary ap­proval of a class-action settlement involving approximately 7,000 workers. If the Ramsey County District Court agrees, the employees (and their attorneys) will split $12 million.

Covered by union agreement? Its terms govern all contracts

04/14/2011
Employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement can’t claim additional quasi-contractual rights, as the following case shows.