The Minnesota legislature has passed a bill permitting recreational marijuana use by adults, making Minnesota the 23rd state to legalize cannabis. Governor Walz is expected to sign the bill, which establishes a complex regulatory framework for the newly legalized product.  Among many other statutes, the new law contains a number of provisions that will…

The Minnesota legislature has enacted a statute rendering noncompetition agreements in the employment context unenforceable, provided they are entered into after the effective date.  Governor Walz is expected to sign the bill.  The legislation applies to all future covenants not to compete and will take effect on July 1, 2023.  Consequently, this new statute does not apply to…

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a significant decision threatening the viability of provisions routinely included in employment settlement agreements.  In the McLaren Macomb decision, the NLRB ruled that an employer violated the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”) when it offered severance agreements to 11 terminated employees containing confidentiality, nondisclosure and non-disparaging provisions.…

On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a proposed rule which, if enacted, would ban most non-compete clauses in employment contracts. The rule would also require employers to rescind existing non-compete clauses with its workers and provide those workers with written notice that the non-competes have been rescinded.

This rule, if enacted…

The 2023 Minnesota Legislative session has begun and two legislative employment proposals that have been in the mix in previous years may finally be enacted because of Democratic control of both chambers of the legislature. It is expected that some form of these two proposals will become law this session. The first would create a…

Minnesota employers who conduct pre-employment drug testing or drug testing of current employees are familiar with the protections for employees who are enrolled in the Department of Health Patient Registry Program for medical marijuana.  An employer cannot discriminate against a person enrolled on the Patient Registry in hiring, termination or any term or condition of…

Employers often require employees to sign agreements which include restrictive covenants.  “Restrictive covenants” include noncompete agreements, non-solicitation restrictions (prohibiting solicitation of customers and/or employees), and confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements. These agreements can be important to protect the employer from the employee working for a competitor, or disrupting customer relationships after the employer has invested in…

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) made two announcements recently that should be of concern to all employers with employees not represented by a union.  The first announcement was made by the NLRB General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, who announced that she will seek to overturn an employer’s ability to enforce mandatory employee meetings during an…

In light of current labor shortages, employers are paying higher wages and contemplating different benefits and working conditions that employees are now demanding.  One such benefit is an unlimited paid time off (PTO) policy.  An unlimited PTO policy allows employees to take as much paid time off as they desire as long as they complete…