5.7 ERMUSR 03-13-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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the employee's compensation, terms, conditions, location, or privileges of employment because: a. The employee, or a person acting on behalf of any employee, in good faith, reports a violation or suspected violation of any federal or state law or rule adopted pursuant to law to the Utilities or to any governmental body or law enforcement official; b. The employee is requested by a public body or office to participate in an investigation, hearing, inquiry; or c. The employee refuses the Utilities' order to perform an action that the employee has an objective basis in fact to believe violates any State or Federal law or rule regulation adopted pursuant to law and the employee informs the Utilities that the order is being refused for that reason. The Utilities will make reasonable efforts to preserve as confidential the identity of an employee making a report under this policy to the extent feasible and consistent with applicable law. Any Utilities manager who receives a report under this policy is required to communicate the matter to the Human Resources Representative immediately. Employees shall not make any statements or disclosures pursuant to this section knowing that they are false or that they are in reckless disregard of the truth. This section does not permit disclosures that would violate federal or state law or diminish or impair the right of any person to the continued protection of confidentiality or communications provided by common law. 10. WAGE INFORMATION Employees working for the Utilities, or living, in Minnesota have the right, under Minn. Stat. §181.172, to choose to disclose their own wages and to discuss another employee's wages that have been voluntarily disclosed by that employee. In addition, regardless of location, employees who are not managers or supervisors also have these rights. An employee does not,however,have the right to disclose to a competitor of the Utilities or to any other person any wage information regarding other employees of the Utilities that he or she has learned in the course of performing job duties that involve access to confidential and private information about employees. The Utilities shall not require an employee to agree to give up his or her wage disclosure rights as a condition of employment, to sign any document that purports to deny an employee his or her wage disclosure rights, or take any retaliatory or other adverse employment action against an employee for exercising his or her wage disclosure rights. A copy of Minn. Stat. §181.172 can be obtained from Human Resources. §181.172 permits a civil cause of action for a violation of the statute and, in any such action,the court may, if found appropriate, order job reinstatement, back pay, restoration of lost service credit, and the expungement of adverse records. 8 November 2015 March 2017 126