The Minnesota Department of Health changed the Fair Labor Standards Act status of approximately 14 MGEC-represented employees from “exempt” to “non-exempt”, effective the pay period beginning May 8th. This change allows affected employees more rights under federal law about how their time is compensated and is part of a larger effort at the agency that has resulted in changed FLSA statuses for over 100 employees. For non-exempt employees, all hours that are spent in service of the employer are strictly compensable hours. If hours are worked, they need to be recorded in time sheets – and ... Read More >>
Activity/Organization updates
MGEC Lunch Series is Underway
Even with our best efforts to engage with our membership to bring updates and listen to concerns using technology, there is no substitute for in-person engagement. In that spirit, MGEC is continuing its road tour of visiting work sites around the state to bring updates to our membership. More importantly, we are also travelling to listen to members’ concerns and deliver solutions. Maplewood Materials Lab On April 16th, we provided lunch and discussion at the Maplewood Materials Testing facility. With approximately 35 MGEC members in attendance, MGEC staff updated the membership about ... Read More >>
Renewing Your Professional License
In Minnesota renewals for the Professional Engineer and Land Surveyor licenses are due June 30, 2024. Somethings to keep in mind. Your state employer regularly checks public records to make sure your license is current. It seems like every two years someone fails to ensure that their renewal was completed and MGEC is made aware of subsequent discipline the state (as an employer) takes against that employee. Between the additional cost of renewing your professional license late and the cost of lost pay due to suspension, the cost of failing to confirm your license renewal is ... Read More >>
“Meet and Confer” Meetings: What they do for MGEC Members
“Meet and Confer” meetings are held at the agency and labor level to address specific concerns that aren’t part of bargaining but still important to MGEC members. Most of the time, they apply to issues and concerns within agencies, but sometimes they can also act as a success story to others. An example occurred at the Department of Health. Fernando Nacionales and Corey Mathisen, current MGEC President and Vice President respectively, called to MDH’s attention the nuisance of having to produce receipts for every meal to be reimbursed. It’s not an area that has a lot of fraud, and the ... Read More >>
MGEC Ethics Seminar Recap
On Thursday, April 4th, MGEC hosted a webinar on ethics as a free benefit for its full members. Facilitated by Hamline Distinguished Law Professor David Schultz, the theme of the presentation centered on how the process of normalizing unethical behaviors can happen through an authoritarian permission structure. Professor Schlutz recounted the Milgram experiments of the early 1960s, which showed that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary unethical things if the conditions are right (or wrong!). While Milgram demonstrated that ordinary people would be willing to shock test subjects if ... Read More >>
Keep your Position Description Updated!
Your Position Description (PD) is the basis of all things relating to your compensation: job audits, reallocations, or agency-initiated compensation studies all use the PD as the first step in determining whether how your paid reflects what you actually do. These assessments can be initiated by you via the MGEC contract (such as in a Job Audit or Reallocation), or they can be initiated by your agency (MDH’s agency-wide compensation study as mentioned in last month’s member update). We want you to be paid fairly for what you do! It is very important to review and update your PD as needed. ... Read More >>