PAID FAMILY LEAVE ACT�SUPERVISORS – SPRING SHORT COURSES 2025�BY: STEVE FENSKE�

A New Insurance Program

• Benefits begin Jan. 1, 2026
• Provides Family Leave and Personal Medical Leave
• Built as an insurance program, like Unemployment Ins.
• Funded by a payroll tax, at least 50% paid by employer

A New Insurance Program

• Up to 20 weeks of partial wage replacement
• May take up to 12 weeks of each type of leave, Family or Medical, but not more than 20 weeks combined.
• Administered by Dept. of Employment & Econ. Development (DEED).

Two Types of Leave

Family Leave

• Care for family member with a serious health condition; bond with a new baby or child; or for the safety reasons.

Medical Leave

• Care for yourself for a serious medical condition that prevents you from working.

Job Protections – Right to Return

• Employees must be restored to same of equivalent position upon return
• Pay, benefits, and seniority must be preserved
• Job Protection starts after 90 days of employment
• No discharge, discipline, penalty, interfere with, threat, restraint, coercion, or other retaliation or discrimination against an employee for requesting or obtaining benefits or leave, or for exercising any other right under this chapter.

All Townships Included

• All employers must provide this benefit to their employees – including election judges, firefighters, and part-time employees.
• No township is “too small”
• Excludes self-employed persons and contractors

Eligibility

• Some employees will not make enough to receive Paid Leave Benefit
• Minimum annual earnings must be at least $1,372, to establish a benefit account.

Timeline

Compliance Tasks

1. Submit Quarterly Wage Reports
2. Provide Notice to Employees
3. Submit Paid Leave Program Premium (Payroll Tax)

Reporting is a Board responsibility; clerk or treasurer may help

Quarterly Wage Reports

• Piggybacks on the Unemployment Insurance (UI) System
• Reporting details outlined in Clerk & Treasurer presentation
• Towns already using UI don’t do anything new
• Towns not using UI must register for a Paid Leave Only account in the UI system
• Electronic reporting only – no paper option

Notice to Employees

• Towns must inform employees of the Paid Leave program, its benefits and employee’s rights by December 2025.
• DEED expected to produce sample notices.
• Require employees to give written notice that they received the information

Notice to Townships

• DEED must inform the township if an employee uses Paid Leave
• Town may require employee to provide documentation required to apply for the leave.

Pay Premiums

• Statutory cap: Premiums cannot rise above 1.2% of wages
• Premiums reset each year in July
• Premiums are paid by a payroll tax of 0.88% of the employee’s wages
• Employers must pay at least 50% of the tax, but may pay more than 50% of the premium.

Premium Rates

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• Towns will likely be in the Small Employer category
• Small Employer category reduces premium rate to 75% or regular rate

Pay Premiums

• Payroll deductions begin Jan. 1, 2026
• First Premium payment due by April 30, 2026
• Premiums are paid by a pay roll tax of 0.88% of the employee’s wages
• Employers must pay at least 50% of the tax, but may pay more than 50% of the premium.

Other Leave Laws

• ESST: Provides short-term leave for care of others; Employer-administered
• Family Medical Leave Act: Federal-provided unpaid leave for care of others. Can required FMLA run concurrently with Paid Leave
• Pregnancy and Parenting Leave Act: State-provided leave; MSA 181.941;

Penalties

• Late Filing penalty – at least $250
• Missing or Erroneous Information - $25 per employee missing or erroneous information
• Unreported employee – Fee of 2% of the wages for each missing employee

TOWN ROAD MISCELLANY�

Trees & Vegetation

• Trees are protected per Minn. Stat. 160.22
• "tree" means a tree or woody perennial shrub or vine which is at least six inches in diameter, as measured at a point two feet from the ground, and "hedge" means any planted and maintained hedge within the right-of-way.

Trees & Vegetation

• Need: (1) permission; (2) purchase; (3) statutory removal procedure
• Statutory process: 14-day written notice with opportunity for a public hearing. Use MAT Document TR 6000
• When in doubt – Stop, Get Help. Penalties: triple damages for taking trees

Trees & Vegetation – Spraying

• Spraying allowed but must be by properly licensed party
• Commercial Application license required
• Best Practice – Use a 3^rd party applicator service; Insurance and written contract are critically important.
• Do Not direct contractor’s work on-site
• MATIT Limitation: $50,000 sub-limit in spraying cases

Approaches

• CHANGE IN LAW:
• Old Rule: Landowner entitled to one access to property, with other accesses at board discretion
• New Rule: Owner has a right to additional approaches, and town limits must be documented and related to construction, maintenance, or safety.
• Higher burden upon the township. MSA 160.18

Where is the Right of Way?

• A complex question with factors that include:
• Recorded instruments
• History of maintenance
• Public use
• Agreements & permissions

Where is the Right of Way?

• A ballpark estimate: The area of the roadway that is maintained by the township for at least 6 consecutive years should be included as ROW.
• Maintenance includes: maintained driving surface, shoulders, maintained ditch structures; vegetation control; snow storage area
• MAT Document TR 5000 can help

Minimum Maintenance Roads

• A road or segment “used only occasionally or intermittently for passenger and commercial travel.”
• Designated by Resolution and Properly signed
• Maintenance is required
• Benefit is liability exemption
• See Minn. Stat. 160.095 & MAT Doc. TR 1000

Snow Plowing Policy

• Plowing policies have a variety of benefits: manage expectations; clarify scope of work; grant or withhold authorities; hold to budget; identify roads worked on and not; establish prerequisites for governmental immunities; manage employees; comply with Open Meeting Law expectations; grant emergency authorities; establish priority roads;

Snow Plowing Policy

• MAT Document TR 15000A is a Snow Removal policy
• May be adapted to your needs
• Intended to create orderly management of the roads; provides reminders of policies and laws

THANK YOU