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Minnesota

Can’t stop employee from working off the clock? Fire him for willful misconduct

12/12/2012
What can employers do when em­­ployees insist on clocking out and continuing to work? Warn them—and then discipline them. If you terminate employees for refusing to listen, they won’t be eligible for un­­em­­ployment compensation and you will also protect your company from an overtime lawsuit.

If you agree to a late return date, extend employees’ reinstatement date, too

12/12/2012
The Minnesota Parental Leave Act provides up to six weeks of leave for childbirth and recovery or adoption. Employees who take leave are entitled to reinstatement. It also includes a provision for extending parental leave, stating that leave “may not exceed six weeks, unless agreed to by the employer.” Until now, it remained up in the air what should happen to the reinstatement right if the employer agreed to a longer leave.

Consult lawyer before reclassifying employees

12/12/2012
Before you jump on the independent contractor bandwagon, remember that when challenged, many such arrangements fail to meet legal tests. The more control you assert over so-called independent contractors, the more likely a court will call them employees.

Hysterics may be sign FMLA leave is required

12/12/2012

Here’s something to consider before you reflexively terminate an employee who walks out. If she’s so distraught that she’s shaking, crying and hysterical, she may need FMLA leave. Instead of terminating her, let her know she should request FMLA leave.

Are there alternatives to noncompetes for employees who work in California?

11/15/2012

Q. We have employees who live and work in Cali­­for­­nia. We get frustrated that we are not allowed to have them sign a noncompete agreement. Is there anything we can do?

Did the Fair Credit Reporting Act just change?

11/15/2012
Q. What were the recent changes to the Fair Credit Reporting Act?

What break time rules do we need to follow?

11/15/2012

Q. We are changing our break policy. What breaks are required and can I require employees to take an unpaid meal break?

NLRB and social media: Be careful what your policy prohibits

11/15/2012
There are now fewer union members than at any point in the past 70 years. And if employers, unencumbered by collective bargaining agreements, don’t spend much time worrying about unionization, it’s a safe bet that they give hardly any thought to how labor law intersects with the ways in which employees electronically communicate with one another. But there’s a powerful connection between the two.

In Minneapolis, janitorial firm haunted by ‘ghost’ timecards

11/15/2012
Minneapolis janitors working for Diversified Maintenance Systems have received conditional class-action status in an FLSA lawsuit that alleges the company orchestrated a timecard switching scheme designed to avoid paying overtime.

Looking for work requires more than four hours a week

11/15/2012
Some workers aren’t terribly diligent about finding work once they are laid off and deemed eligible for unemployment compensation. A court has ruled that a good-faith effort to find work certainly requires more than a handful of hours a week making phone calls and searching the web.