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Minnesota

Under what circumstances must we pay interns?

09/09/2008

Q. My company would like to hire several college students as interns to work on special projects. Because the work has educational value, we are wondering if the internships can be unpaid. Can we do this? …

Election Day: Is paid time off required?

09/09/2008
Q. Are we obligated to pay employees for the time they take off to vote? …

Election Day: Mandatory time off to work the polls?

09/09/2008
Q. An employee who has already used all of his PTO for the year recently requested a day off on Nov. 4, 2008, to serve as an election judge. Do we have to give him the day off? …

Issues to consider before monitoring e-mail

09/09/2008

Q. If we suspect an employee is violating a company policy prohibiting harassment, can we monitor the employee’s e-mails? …

Make sure fitness tests don’t unfairly target women

08/12/2008
Some jobs obviously require that the employees who perform them be in excellent physical condition. For example, firefighters and others engaged in heavy physical work may have to be extremely physically fit. It’s legitimate for employers to test those physical abilities on a regular basis. Be careful, though, about how you administer those tests to men and women …

Civility is great—But you don’t have to guarantee it

08/12/2008
It’s a fact of life—not every employee is going to get along with everyone else in your shop. Some managers and supervisors will have more trouble managing a particular employee than others. However, unless the reason for a supervisor’s criticism is the employee’s protected status (e.g., race or age), the employee won’t win a hostile-environment lawsuit if the “hostility” isn’t extremely severe …

Develop procedures for breaks that accommodate disabilities

08/12/2008
Sometimes, employees with disabilities may need additional breaks as reasonable accommodations. But you don’t have to leave the timing or duration of the breaks entirely to the employee. If you do, it will be hard to tell whether the employee is taking a legitimate and necessary accommodations break or simply taking advantage of additional freedom. And that can lead to litigation …

Prejudgment, blind faith by HR may prove costly

08/12/2008
How HR handles discrimination complaints can mean the difference between winning and losing lawsuits. The key lies in using good faith when checking out allegations of discrimination. Do not automatically assume that either party is correct. Keep an open mind and conduct an impartial investigation, giving everyone a chance to present his or her version of events …

Sour environment doesn’t warrant constructive discharge

08/12/2008
Employees who believe they are being discriminated against and can no longer tolerate their work environments may quit and sue, claiming they had no choice. That’s the basis for a “constructive discharge” claim. But it takes more than an unpleasant work environment to justify the resignation as constructive discharge …

Poor performance review and improvement plan alone aren’t signs of retaliation

08/12/2008
Good news for managers and supervisors: Giving an employee a poor performance review and then placing the employee on an improvement plan isn’t an adverse employment action on its face. Employees can’t successfully sue unless a pay cut, lost benefits, a lost bonus or some other tangible, negative results accompany that poor evaluation or improvement plan …