Business Owners: Think Twice Before Gifting Stock to Employees
September 24, 2021 | Carole Clark Isakson
I receive regular calls from small business owners that want to show appreciation to their hardworking employees by gifting shares in the company. Sometimes, the goal is to incentivize an employee to work harder and in other cases, the employer hopes to keep the employee long-term and feels the gift will help with this. I generally dissuade these owners from share transfers and suggest other ways to bonus employees based on profits. Why? Because an owner of shares, no matter how small, has rights in the company that can cause issues for the well-meaning employer. Minority shareholders in Minnesota have a variety of rights. For instance, minority shareholders in privately held corporations have the right to request and examine the share register, the records of all shareholders, and board proceedings over the past three years. This includes all articles, amendments, bylaws currently in effect, certain financial statements, reports made to shareholders within the last three years, names and business addresses of all directors and principal officers, voting trust agreements, shareholder control agreements, and other types of agreements. While providing these documents may not be difficult, many employers would rather not share this information. When an employee comes to their employer, and owns a share in the company, this information must be provided. In…
Read MoreMinnesota Expands Nursing Mothers Pregnancy Accommodations
September 21, 2021 | Scott M. Lepak
By Scott Lepak and Claire Schmitz The 2021 Minnesota legislature amended the nursing mother statute to provide broader protections and clarifications. The law states: (a) An employer must provide reasonable break times each day to an employee who needs to express breast milk for her infant child during the twelve months following the birth of the child. The break times must, if possible, run concurrently with any break times already provided to the employee. An employer is not required to provide break times under this section if to do so would unduly disrupt the operations of the employer. An employer shall not reduce an employee’s compensation for time used for the purpose of expressing milk. 2021 Minn. Laws Ch. 10, Art. 3, § 3 (S.F. No. 9). There are some areas of note in this amended law: The employer “must provide reasonable break times.” This implies that multiple breaks per day must be allowed. The prior law referenced a break time that was not plural. These breaks must be “reasonable.” Though “reasonable” was not defined in the original law (1998) or in the 2021 amendment, there is some authority suggesting that the average time it takes for a woman to pump her breasts is 15-20 minutes. With cleaning and putting away equipment, these…
Read MoreManaging Data Privacy in the Post-Pandemic Era
September 16, 2021 | Barna, Guzy & Steffen, Ltd.
COVID-19 has changed the way we live, work, shop, and socialize on a global scale. In the early weeks of the pandemic, people transformed their homes into virtual offices, workspaces, and classrooms among concerns for the health and safety of everyone. As a result, this “new normal” started to infringe upon our personal privacy as new tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other videoconferencing platforms became standard operating procedure. However, the pandemic did not slow down technological advancement or the pace of regulation affecting data privacy and security. Read our blog as we discuss managing data privacy as we continue to manage this pandemic. What is, or will be, our new normal? Whatever it is, data privacy concerns will remain. Changes to the Regulatory Landscape In January 2020, the state of California implemented legislation geared towards greater protection of consumer data. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ushered in changes to the way businesses collect, process, and distribute private information as consumer demand for greater privacy protections increased. The affect of the new legislation was widespread, prompting many companies like Microsoft and Uber to alter their business practices to comply with the new law. In fact, the CCPA has served as a blueprint for other states to draft and adopt their own laws;…
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