The following is an update from Gislason & Hunter LLP’s Employment, Labor and Benefits Practice Group regarding legislation passed by the State of Minnesota at the end of the 2019 Legislative Session. The Act: The laws discussed below were passed as Chapter 7 of the 2019 Session Law. Effective Date: The civil provisions go into...

The shortage of qualified workers in rural Minnesota has many employers looking for unique ways to attract, train, and keep the right people in important positions.  Many of these solutions include a large, up-front, monetary investment by the employer such as a signing bonus, paying for training, or even paying a salary during training.  Employers...

It’s 10:30 on a Tuesday morning.  You’ve finished the morning Staff Meeting, answered twenty seven emails, checked Facebook and are now sitting down to write some employee reviews. Then you get it.  A letter from an attorney.  Not your attorney.  An attorney representing the employee you terminated last week.  The employee you fired after his...

“I’m being sued by a former employee. He came back drunk from lunch, crashed his forklift, and destroyed $1,000.00 of product. Our security cameras caught it all and it was clearly his gross negligence that caused the accident. I fired him on the spot and took the $1,000.00 out of his final pay. I’m in...

Internships have been receiving special attention lately with the popular Robert Di Nero movie The Intern and a lawsuit brought against Fox Searchlight Pictures by former unpaid interns claiming compensation. Against this backdrop of entertainment and law, what is an internship? What are the expectations legally and from a work perspective? What is an internship...

With the drawdown of the U.S. Military, many veterans are entering the workforce. Many public employers, and some private employers, have gone out of their way to hire veterans. While most of these are highly motivated and capable employees, there are some terminations from time to time. Minnesota Statutes section 197.46, the Veterans Preference Act,...

Minnesota legislators and legislatures often refer to even numbered years as “bonding” and odd years as “budgeting.” However, there is no constitutional or other legal provision requiring “bonding” vs. “budgeting” years. The informal distinction simply means that in odd years, the legislature hopes to pass a two year budget. In odd years, with the budget...