Effective August 1st of last year, the State of Minnesota released new legislation prohibiting an employer from holding “captive audience” meetings. Details are as follows:
Employers must post a notice of employee rights under this law where employee notices are customarily placed. There are no examples of posters provided by the State of Minnesota which is odd due to posters being provided for every other posting requirement by law. Statements within the notice must inform employees that they cannot be penalized for any of the following reasons;
- Because the employee declines to attend/participate in employer-sponsored meetings or declines to receive/listen to communications from the employer if intent is to communicate the opinion of the employer about religious or political matters;
- As a means of inducing an employee to attend/participate in meetings or receive/listen to communications of employer’s opinion about religious or political matters; or
- Because the employee, or a person acting on behalf of the employee, makes a good-faith report, orally or in writing, of a violation or a suspected violation of this section.
Employers should be aware that the law explicitly does not [1] prohibit communications of information that the employer is required by law to communicate; [2] limit the rights of an employer to conduct meetings involving religious or political matters so long as attendance and verbal communication is wholly voluntary; [3] limit the rights of an employer from communicating to its employees any information, or requiring employee attendance at meetings and other events, that is necessary for the employees to perform their lawfully required job duties.
For more information on the definitions of political and religious matters, the Minnesota statute 181.531 can be found at https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/181.531.