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North Dakota

Petty slights and ostracism don’t add up to retaliation

05/13/2008
Sometimes, it seems as if every employee who ever filed a complaint about real or imagined discrimination follows up with a retaliation lawsuit. Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court loosened the requirements for proving retaliation, lawyers have had a field day. At least the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has begun reining in these lawsuits …

Older worker’s performance falling? Document the decline before discharge

04/08/2008
It almost never looks good in court when an employee who has been with the company for decades suddenly loses his job. For many potential jurors, that smacks of age discrimination even before they’ve heard any testimony. That’s one reason to try to get age cases dismissed long before a jury gets a chance to impose its judgment …

Ensure harassment victim knows you want her to stay

04/01/2008
Employees who believe they are enduring unbearable harassment may feel they have no choice but to resign. If that happens, they may be able to sue their employers for constructive discharge. But employers can mitigate that danger by making sure the employee understands that management wants her to stay on board while the company investigates …

Document timing of employee complaints

04/01/2008
When it comes to retaliation, timing is everything. It’s impossible for an employer to retaliate against an employee for complaining about alleged harassment or discrimination before the employer knows about it. That’s why it’s so important to note for the record the date and the exact time HR or a supervisor got a harassment or discrimination complaint …

Incapacity doesn’t extend time to contact EEO counselor

04/01/2008
Federal employees are required to contact their agency’s Equal Employment Opportunity counsel within 45 days of experiencing alleged discrimination unless circumstances beyond an employee’s control prevent her from contacting the counselor. But it takes more than a blanket “I was depressed” to win an extension …

Making a frivolous complaint is not protected activity

04/01/2008
When employees file frivolous complaints, it doesn’t count as a protected activity. That means an employee can’t set up his employer by filing a nonsensical discrimination claim and then waiting for some perceived punishment or imagined slight to create a retaliation lawsuit. Courts seem to be catching on to that common practice …

Choose your words carefully when explaining discharge

04/01/2008
You are no doubt familiar with the saying, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Nowhere does that apply more than in the workplace when you have to discharge someone. What supervisors say about former employees who have been discharged can easily backfire …

Be careful what you promise: You may extend employee’s time to sue

04/01/2008
The Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) protects employees from discrimination, but requires them to file their claims within one year of the discriminatory act. But an employee who believes she has a claim and waits to file may sometimes gain extra time—if the discriminating entity promises to investigate …

Whistle-Blower protection requires employee’s intent to expose illegality

04/01/2008
Minnesota’s whistle-blower law protects health care workers from retaliation. It is illegal to take adverse employment action against employees who report situations in which the quality of health care services violates a clinical or ethical standard or places the public at risk. But whistle-blowers must intend to expose illegality; it can’t just be in the context of doing their jobs …

Hiring tests must reflect true work conditions

03/01/2008
Women accounted for half of new hires at an Iowa meatpacker until the company instituted a new pre-hire lifting test. Then the percentage of women fell to 15%.