by Charles Horowitz | Jul 24, 2018 | Employment Law
Whether hiring your first or fiftieth employee, any employer needs to know the wide array of laws — federal state and local — governing the minutiae of the employer-employee relationship. The following is an outline of some of the laws. It is NOT intended to be a...
by Charles Horowitz | Feb 9, 2018 | Employment Law
Recently, the Minnesota Court of Appeals in Safety Ctr., Inc. v. Stier (Minn. App. Nov. 2017) re-affirmed Minnesota’s rules pertaining to post-employment restrictive covenants that are “ancillary to employment.” That is, non-competition and...
by Charles Horowitz | Feb 1, 2018 | Employment Law
According to a recent survey, a full 30% of American employees moonlight, working on the side for a second (or even third) employer. The practice raises potentially serious issues under Minnesota’s duty of loyalty, as discussed in a recent Federal District...
by Charles Horowitz | Dec 6, 2017 | Employment Law, Miscellaneous
Whatever the wording of your employer’s computer, e-mail and internet usage policy, chances are you use your work-issued computer for at least some personal, non-work-related communication. This practice raises potentially serious privacy concerns. Employer...
by Charles Horowitz | Nov 29, 2017 | Civil Rights & Tort Law, Contracts, Leases, & Disputes, Miscellaneous
Few would dispute that we live in politically and socially acrimonious times. Online social media broaden the reach of ever more vile rhetoric aimed at individuals, ethnic groups, products and businesses. Although some forms of hate speech are constitutionally...
by Charles Horowitz | Oct 25, 2017 | Contracts, Leases, & Disputes, Employment Law
Minnesota law goes beyond federal law in protecting parents-to-be against unfair treatment in the workplace. The 2014 Women’s Economic Security Act (WESA) allows Minnesota employees up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave from work in order to have or adopt a child,...
by Charles Horowitz | Sep 25, 2017 | Employment Law, Insurance Claims
The federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, popularly known as COBRA, allows employees separated from employment as a result of a “qualifying event” (quit, lay-off, or termination, unless resulting from “gross misconduct”) to...
by Charles Horowitz | Sep 20, 2017 | Employment Law
Minnesota law imposes on all Minnesota employers with 20 or more employees very specific requirements concerning employee personnel files, referred to in the statutes as “personnel records.” The degree of regulation is interesting, considering that their...
by Charles Horowitz | Jul 18, 2017 | Miscellaneous
The Minnesota Court of Appeals recently issued a remarkable decision clarifying the rights of parties seeking to enforce non-competition agreements under Minnesota law. Long story short, contractual language dictating the right to injunctive relief will be enforced...
by Charles Horowitz | Apr 19, 2017 | Civil Rights & Tort Law, Consumer Law
Minnesota was one of the last states to recognize a legal claim of invasion of privacy in the landmark opinion of Lake v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 582 N.W.2d 231 (Minn. 1998). The case involved employees in a discount store’s photo lab who circulated within the...
