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Minnesota

Part-time work isn’t always reasonable accommodation

04/19/2017
A court has concluded that, for some jobs, full-time attendance is an essential function. When that’s the case, an employer has no obligation to create a part-time position to accommodate an employee’s disability.

Courts won’t hold it against you: Take a chance on hiring raw candidate

04/19/2017
Taking a chance—hiring the minimally qualified applicant—may mean having to turn around and terminate him a short time later. That’s usually fine.

Isolated incidents don’t add up to harassment

04/19/2017
Courts don’t expect workplaces to be perfectly harmonious, without any hint of harassment. As long as the behavior doesn’t repeat or become progressively worse, courts generally hesitate to intervene.

St. Paul business executive cops plea for felony theft

03/29/2017
Former St. Jude Medical executive Bryan C. Szweda will pay $117,090 in restitution to the St. Paul medical devices company following a plea deal in which he admitted to stealing $35,000.

Use last-chance agreements to show you’re fair about making termination decisions

03/29/2017
Sometimes, it makes sense to use a last-chance agreement in which an employee agrees that one more violation of a company rule will mean immediate termination.

Being placed on improvement plan isn’t automatic proof of poor performance

03/29/2017
Don’t expect a court to simply take your word for it that an employee was doing a poor job.

Patience makes discipline bullet-proof

03/29/2017
Courts like to see that employers gave employees a chance to improve before firing them for performance problems. That’s why it’s smart to exhaustively document your effort to correct poor performance.

Are departing employees legally allowed to demand a copy of their personnel files?

03/23/2017
Q. If an employee is leaving the company and they request to take with them a copy of their complete personnel file, do they have the right to receive it? If so, does that include all records from their separate medical file and any confidential files?

Can we refuse to pay out accrued vacation if employee suddenly quits?

03/23/2017
Q. Our company policy is not to pay an employee for unused vacation time if the employee resigns without giving the required two weeks’ notice. A former employee has challenged this policy and is threatening to take the company to court. Is this policy lawful?

Do we have to keep job open for Minn. employee on extended jury duty?

03/23/2017
Q. We are a small business and cannot afford to have employees out for extended leaves. One of our employees will be on jury duty for a trial that we’re told could continue for at least a month. Do we have to keep her job open to her when the trial is over?