Good news for employers doing business in Minneapolis, but not located in Minneapolis…as the result of a lawsuit brought by the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and others, a Hennepin County judge has temporarily enjoined Minneapolis from enforcing its Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance against employers not residing in Minneapolis, until the hearing on the merits. What does this mean? For employers not located in the City of Minneapolis, you do not need to modify your paid time off just yet. As I wrote about earlier, the ordinance is set to go into effect on July 1, 2017,  (though it won’t be meaningfully enforced for a year) and, as written, would affect all employers, wherever located (such as trucking companies driving through Minneapolis). This Order puts a hold on it’s reach…for now.

However, as I noted earlier, other Minnesota cities are following suit. On February 14, 2017, a Duluth task force, called the “Earned Safe and Sick Time Task Force” has started its series of 8 public meetings to debate a similar ordinance. As a result of the various city leave ordinances taking effect (Minneapolis, St. Paul and perhaps Duluth), a bill has been introduced, the Uniform State Labor Standards Act, HF600, which would prohibit cities from: adopting ordinances which requires employers to pay employees a higher wage than state minimum wage; mandating paid or unpaid leave; mandating certain scheduling of work time; and providing other certain benefits (unrelated to its own city government workers). The bill certainly has a long way to go, but it recognizes the concerns of multi-location employers and the administrative nightmare with not only complying with various states’ laws, but local ordinances as well.