Category: Employment Law
The Ever-Changing Landscape of Non-Compete Agreements | Part 1/4: A Summary of Minnesota’s Non-Compete Laws
August 19, 2024 | Kristin Kingsbury
Key Takeaways Under Minnesota State Law: Businesses should not use non-compete agreements for their employees and should not be including non-compete language in their employee handbook or onboarding processes anymore. Existing non-compete agreements entered before July 1, 2023, are still valid, so long as they are reasonable. Good Practice: Conduct due diligence on current agreements to verify that sufficient protections exist. Assess employees’ access to trade secrets to ensure business interests are being properly protected. Review venue provisions in form employment contracts. Review and strengthen less restrictive alternatives (e.g., NDAs, non-solicitation agreements, trade secret law, forfeiture provisions, etc.). Consult with an experienced attorney to determine the best courses of action for your specific situation. This is Part One of a Four-Part series on recent developments in non-compete law. This article details the nuts and bolts of the Minnesota statutory prohibition on non-competes, effective July 1, 2023. The next article will outline the Rule promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The third article in the series will summarize litigation attacking the FTC Rule. The fourth and final article in the series will address practical guidance going forward, including the impact of the United States Supreme Court reversing the Chevron doctrine on the FTC Rule – in whatever form it may be considering the…
Read MoreNursing Mother/Lactating Employees and Pregnancy Accommodation in Minnesota
June 12, 2023 | Toni PerrierAn Update on the 2023 Changes to the Law By Scott Lepak and Katherine Bogart The 2023 Minnesota legislature amended the prior nursing mother and pregnancy accommodation statute to provide broader protections and clarifications. The law is at https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/2023/0/53/ at Article 11, Section 27. It will go into effect on July 1, 2023. Nursing Mothers/Lactating Employees Among the changes to the law, it now requires employers to provide reasonable break times to an employee who needs to express milk. The prior requirement that the employee be expressing breast milk for her infant child has been removed. The twelve month limitation following the birth of the child that was in the law has also been removed. A practical effect of this change is that employees expressing milk in order to sell or donate it are now permitted to take breaks for this purpose. The law also removes the prior exception where an employer could deny break times where it would unduly disrupt the operations of the employer. With this revision in the law, it appears that employer hardship is no longer a defense for employers under the law. The law adds the requirement that the employer make reasonable efforts to provide a room or other location that is clean, private and secure. The…
Read MoreIs Your Employment Lawyer Readily Accessible?
October 6, 2021 | Barna, Guzy & Steffen, Ltd.
Employment law has never been more complicated than it is right now. Every termination, request for leave, on-the-job injury, interview, offer of employment, and complaint has its own set of landmines for employers. Regardless of company size and number of employees, being an employer and navigating the complex world of employment law has become a real challenge. Employers, and even their skilled human resources teams, sometimes need legal advice and opinions to avoid potential costly mistakes in handling employee issues. Continue reading to learn more about my experience with employment lawyer accessibility. I represent a wide variety of employers, ranging in size from thousands to only a handful, and everything in between. The one thing they have in common is that if they employ people, they will need sound, practical legal advice at some point. Many employers need advice regularly because of the complexity of the issues while making employment decisions. Employment advice and consultations are all about controlling the risk while making the best decision for the company. For example, most employees in the State of Minnesota are “employees at will.” This means they can be fired for any reason or no reason at all. But that is not where the analysis ends, because even employees who are “at will” cannot be fired for a discriminatory…
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