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Employment Law

Employee has full year to file Minnesota Human Rights Act complaint

07/15/2014
The Minnesota Human Rights Act has a one-year deadline for filing complaints with the state or a local human rights commission. Does that mean that an EEOC complaint filed within one year but after 300 days is timely? According to a recent decision, yes.

Prove executive exemption by demonstrating ‘direct involvement’ in hiring process

07/15/2014

To avoid paying overtime for hours worked over 40 per week, employers have to fit employees into an exempt category. One commonly used exemption is the executive label. But that exemption requires an employee to either be directly involved in hiring and firing or to have his or her recommendations for hiring and firing weigh heavily in the decision-making process.

Timing is everything in FMLA retaliation case: Keep careful records when making decisions

07/15/2014
Here’s a hypothetical situation that shows how important it is to be aware of the calendar when dealing with the FMLA.

Litany of gripes won’t prove hostile environment

07/15/2014
Hostility isn’t the same as discrimination. Proving it requires an affected employee to show both subjectively and objectively that she endured ridicule or worse—not just that her supervisor was unfair or even discriminated.

Audit discipline cases for hidden racial bias

07/15/2014
Supervisors sometimes enforce rules in a biased way or discipline members of a protected class more severely than others. But HR can stop this discrimination dead in its tracks with an internal informal audit. Regular monitoring (and fixing any problems you find) may be the best lawsuit-prevention tool around.

Hey boss! National origins comments never OK

07/15/2014
Remind supervisors that they must never make jokes (or assumptions) about employees based on where they were born, their origins or other national or ethnic characteristics.

You can enforce call-in rules for employees on FMLA leave

07/15/2014
Employers that have call-in procedures for absences can require that employees use them when requesting FMLA leave or updating their status. Simply having a doctor fax in medical excuses isn’t enough.

Remind bosses about risk of personal liability

07/14/2014

Quite often, employees’ attorneys make sure supervisors are separately charged and individually liable. Cite this trend during training to instill in your managers and supervisors that they need to follow the professional advice HR provides on discipline, hiring and other issues—or else face the consequences.

Labor pains: What to expect from U.S. Labor Department for rest of ’14

07/11/2014
Twice every year, federal agencies offer an unheralded but revealing peek at their upcoming priorities. The U.S. Depart­­ment of Labor’s most recent semiannual regulatory agenda provides enforcement clues that employers should pay attention to.

Senate bill would raise threshold for salaried workers’ OT pay

07/11/2014
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, has introduced legislation that would make more exempt workers eligible for overtime pay.