Ferraro Vega Employment Lawyers can help you if you’re facing unpaid wages at your job in Minnesota. Getting sick or dealing with a family emergency is stressful enough. You shouldn’t have to worry about whether taking time off will cost you your job, your paycheck, or your future with your employer. That’s where Minnesota’s Earn Sick and Safe Time (ESST) law comes in, but when your employer doesn’t follow it, we can help. Set up a free consultation today.
What Does Minnesota’s Earned Sick and Safe Time Law Cover?
Most workers in Minnesota are familiar with sick time. Whether it comes from an emergency or a longer-term illness, Minnesota law gives you and other workers some protection with the Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST). It applies to:
- Workers that have been employed for at least 80 hours in a year.
- Full-time employees (not independent contractors).
Under the ESST, employers have to provide paid leave for certain reasons, including:
- Take care of your own health, including recovering from an illness, injury, or medical condition, or attending a doctor appointment.
- Care for a family member, including a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, in-law, foster family member, or someone who lives with you.
- Deal with issues involving domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking, including getting medical care, counseling, legal help, or other support.
- Stay home because of certain closures, such as when your workplace or your child’s school or place of care closes for a qualifying reason.
Again, these are minimums. Generally, workers get one hour of sick and safe time for every 30 hours they work. However, a lot of employers choose to provide more paid leave than what the ESST requires, while others combine it with a general paid time off (PTO) policy. And it’s not a question of what your rights are, it’s understanding how your employer might not follow through.
How Employers Violate Minnesota’s ESST Law
Because there’s so many different kinds of workers in Minnesota, there’s the same amount of variety when it comes to the workplace. But again, your protection that comes under the law is pretty much universal when it comes to ESST. The question then becomes, how might my employer try to get around it? Usually, they do this by:
- Making it difficult to use your earned sick and safe time
- Punishing you for taking protected leave
- Failing to properly track your earned leave
- Creating policies that don’t follow the law
Again, these issues can happen in almost any workplace across Minnesota, whether it’s a restaurant in Minneapolis or a hospital in Duluth. And while it’s always unfortunate when it happens to you, there are ways you can try to make things right.
What Options Do I Have If My Employer Violates the ESST Law?
Obviously, you never want to be in a situation where your employer won’t let you take ESST leave or otherwise targets you because of it. But things snap into focus once you realize it’s happening. Options you have for making things right might involve:
- Talking with your employer directly. If you’re comfortable, setting up a meeting with your boss or HR can bring the problem to their attention and sometimes resolve things right then and there.
- Filing an administrative complaint. Outside of going to your employer directly, you can also file an administrative complaint with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI). They can look into your claims and if they find that your employer hasn’t followed through on ESST, they can order them to pay you for what you’ve missed out on and change certain policies and practices.
- Filing a lawsuit. Since DLI is administrative, they don’t have the full power of the law when it comes to their orders. At that point, your next step might be filing a civil lawsuit. That takes courage, but it does give you a better chance at “damages” for your:
- Lost income
- Emotional distress
- Attorney’s fees and court costs
- If multiple coworkers are experiencing the same problem, it may not just be an isolated issue. When that happens, you can go forward with a class action lawsuit.
Every situation is different. Sometimes a conversation is enough to fix the problem. Other times, it takes further steps. No matter what option you go with, though, one thing is going to be vital: information.
Information That Can Help Me With an ESST Claim
It’s one thing to think that your ESST rights are being denied or being punished for using it. It’s a whole other level when you actually confirm it and want to move ahead with bringing it up. The key to all of that is having information at hand, like:
- Pay stubs showing your earned leave or PTO balances
- Attendance records, work schedules, and time records
- Your employee handbook or written leave policies
- Emails, text messages, or other communications about your leave request
- Doctor’s notes or other documentation, if one was required
- Write-ups, disciplinary notices, or termination paperwork
- Notes showing when you requested leave and how your employer responded
Don’t worry if you don’t have everything. Just focus on what you have and we can fill in the gaps later.
Get Help From Ferraro Vega Employment Lawyers For ESST Violations in Minnesota
Many workers in Minnesota aren’t sure whether what happened to them actually violated the ESST law. That’s understandable. But the fact remains that these kinds of violations happen across the many different workplaces here. And when it does, it makes sense to get help from our team at Ferraro Vega Employment Lawyers. When we sit down with you, we can:
- Explain how Minnesota’s Earned Sick and Safe Time law applies to your situation
- Review your attendance records, leave balances, pay records, and other information
- Help determine whether your employer may have violated the law
- Handle conversations with your employer when appropriate
- Help you file a claim if your employer refuses to correct the problem
Most of all, we want to make an already difficult situation easier on you and your family. Going up against your employer takes courage, but with our team on your side, we’ll make sure your rights are protected and you have what you need to make things right. Set up a free consultation today to get started.
