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Minnesota

What should we do with the belongings of an employee who died?

09/08/2010
Q. One of our employees recently died. We still have his personal belongings and are wondering what we should do to return these items?

Can we make this hire? Confidentiality agreement doesn’t include a noncompete

09/08/2010
Q. We want to hire an applicant, but received a letter from his employer stating that working for us would violate a confidentiality agreement he signed with that employer. Since he doesn’t have a noncompete agreement, can we hire him?

Fired after injury, star worker sues Delta under ADA

09/08/2010

Call it a missed opportunity. Call it a misunderstanding. Nancy Grozdanich-Lipinski did neither. She called her lawyer. Grozdanich-Lipinski is suing her former employer, Delta Airlines, for violations of the ADA.

Take all racial harassment complaints seriously

09/08/2010
When an employee complains about racial prejudice or harassment, don’t brush it off. Instead, act right away. Even a briefly hostile environment may mean a big award.

Punishing for accommodation request may be retaliation

09/08/2010
An employee who requests accommodations can sue for retaliation if he can show that his employer punished him for making the request.

Sued for counting FMLA against fired worker? Prove you planned to discharge anyway

09/08/2010
If you’re deciding whether to fire an employee for attendance problems (under a no-fault attendance policy, for example), you must make sure you aren’t counting FMLA leave against her. However, all is not lost if you accidentally add in an FMLA absence—as long as you can show you still would have fired the employee because of other attendance problems.

Minor annoyances aren’t retaliation, even after employee has lodged complaints

09/08/2010

Some employees are under the mistaken impression that if they complain about anything bad that happens at work, their employer can’t do anything to them, no matter what the circumstances. They think that anything negative the employer does after they complain must be retaliation. Fortunately, that’s not true.

Offer several ways to complain of harassment to guard against supervisor inaction

09/08/2010

The best sexual harassment policy sets up many ways for employees to lodge complaints. Here’s why: Sometimes low-level supervisors don’t take harassment as seriously as they should. If your sexual harassment policy tells employees to complain to their bosses without offering an alternative, they could become frustrated or angry. Plus, the alleged offensive behavior could very well escalate.

Surprise! Iron Range firm wins EEOC ADA case

09/08/2010
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Accommodating isn’t ‘regarding as disabled’

09/08/2010

Here’s good news for employers that want to accommodate employees who say they’re disabled, even if it’s not clear they actually are. If you make the accommodations, the employee can’t sue you for regarding her as disabled if it turns out she isn’t really disabled. That means you can safely agree to an accommodation without fearing a lawsuit later.