• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly
Connection failed: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory

Minnesota

Simple personality clash is no reason to quit

02/19/2014
Employees can sometimes receive unemployment benefits even if they quit, but they must have good cause. Mere dissatisfaction doesn’t count.

Remind bosses: Employees approved for intermittent FMLA leave are entitled to take it

02/19/2014
Employees with chronic conditions may need time off, but can’t always plan those absences in advance. And that may mean understaffed positions on short notice. That’s unfortunate, but it’s something a good manager must work around—and something HR should monitor.

ADA: You may not have to honor employee’s request for gradual return to work

02/19/2014

It may be a reasonable accommodation to grant additional time off after a disabled employee has used up her FMLA entitlement and other leave. But what if the disabled employee wants a gradual return to work, easing back in by working part time?

Investigate all allegations of harassment, even those made by poor performers

02/19/2014

Just because an employee is doing a lousy job doesn’t mean she isn’t also being sexually harassed. Ignoring her complaints and focusing strictly on her performance may backfire if you terminate her. A jury may decide that harassment affected her performance or that, even if you fired her for legitimate reasons, she deserves compensation for the har­­ass­­ment she endured.

3 Minnesota employers make Fortune’s ‘best’ list

02/19/2014
Minnesota-based Allianz Life Insur­­ance of North America, the Mayo Clinic and General Mills made Fortune magazine’s 2014 list of America’s 100 best companies to work for.

Warn bosses: Don’t punish for workers’ comp

02/19/2014

Minnesota workers injured on the job are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits and can’t be punished for asking for or receiving those benefits. Remind supervisors and ­managers that it’s their job to manage the work­­force despite injuries and that threatening or actually punishing workers who apply for benefits is illegal.

Argument in the workplace isn’t harassment

02/19/2014
Sometimes, employees lose their tempers. That’s unfortunate and you certainly should discourage it. But a loud or tumultuous argument between a supervisor and a subordinate isn’t necessarily grounds for a harassment lawsuit.

The evidence is on Facebook: Can we fire for inappropriate behavior while wearing our logo?

01/22/2014
Q. One of our employees recently posted a picture of himself on Facebook doing something inappropriate while wearing a T-shirt with our company logo on it. The inappropriate conduct didn’t occur at a work event, but we’re concerned that the T-shirt connects us to the conduct. We would like to fire him immediately, but we hesitate because the termination is based on his personal Facebook page.

In case of he-said/she-said harassment, can we make employees hand over text messages?

01/22/2014
Q. One of our employees was recently accused of sending sexually harassing texts to another employee. The complaining employee said she was so upset by the texts she deleted them; the accused employee adamantly denies sending the texts. Can we search the accused employee’s cellphone or is there a way to retrieve the messages from the complaining employee’s phone?

OSHA launches online whistle-blower complaint form

01/22/2014
OSHA now offers whistle-blowers an online complaint form. Until now, whistle-blowers had to either write or call OSHA. The online form is designed to provide workers who have been retaliated against an additional way to reach out for OSHA assistance.