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Minnesota

Employment Lawyer Network:
Minnesota

Carl Crosby Lehmann (Editor)

Minnesota Employment Law

Carl.Lehmann@GPMLaw.com
(612) 632-3234

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Carl Crosby Lehmann, Esq., of Gray, Plant Mooty in Minneapolis, has significant experience in advising employers on personnel matters, drafting employment policies and agreements, and litigating employers' interests in both administrative and judicial proceedings. Carl's practice includes advising employers in personnel-related matters, including terminations, discrimination and sexual harassment issues, defamation claims, employment and independent contractor agreements, noncompete and confidentiality agreements, wage-hour concerns, voluntary and mandatory affirmative action policies, and insurance issues.

Exempt employees and a reduced workweek

04/08/2008
Q. During our slow season, we would like to require employees to work just four days per week in order save on labor costs. Can we require exempt employees to participate? …

Ensure harassment victim knows you want her to stay

04/01/2008
Employees who believe they are enduring unbearable harassment may feel they have no choice but to resign. If that happens, they may be able to sue their employers for constructive discharge. But employers can mitigate that danger by making sure the employee understands that management wants her to stay on board while the company investigates …

Document timing of employee complaints

04/01/2008
When it comes to retaliation, timing is everything. It’s impossible for an employer to retaliate against an employee for complaining about alleged harassment or discrimination before the employer knows about it. That’s why it’s so important to note for the record the date and the exact time HR or a supervisor got a harassment or discrimination complaint …

Incapacity doesn’t extend time to contact EEO counselor

04/01/2008
Federal employees are required to contact their agency’s Equal Employment Opportunity counsel within 45 days of experiencing alleged discrimination unless circumstances beyond an employee’s control prevent her from contacting the counselor. But it takes more than a blanket “I was depressed” to win an extension …

Making a frivolous complaint is not protected activity

04/01/2008
When employees file frivolous complaints, it doesn’t count as a protected activity. That means an employee can’t set up his employer by filing a nonsensical discrimination claim and then waiting for some perceived punishment or imagined slight to create a retaliation lawsuit. Courts seem to be catching on to that common practice …

Choose your words carefully when explaining discharge

04/01/2008
You are no doubt familiar with the saying, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Nowhere does that apply more than in the workplace when you have to discharge someone. What supervisors say about former employees who have been discharged can easily backfire …

Be careful what you promise: You may extend employee’s time to sue

04/01/2008
The Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) protects employees from discrimination, but requires them to file their claims within one year of the discriminatory act. But an employee who believes she has a claim and waits to file may sometimes gain extra time—if the discriminating entity promises to investigate …

Whistle-Blower protection requires employee’s intent to expose illegality

04/01/2008
Minnesota’s whistle-blower law protects health care workers from retaliation. It is illegal to take adverse employment action against employees who report situations in which the quality of health care services violates a clinical or ethical standard or places the public at risk. But whistle-blowers must intend to expose illegality; it can’t just be in the context of doing their jobs …

Drywall company faces class action suit

04/01/2008
Eight Hispanic workers have filed a class action lawsuit against drywall company Mulcahy Inc., of Mahtomedi, alleging the company paid them less than minimum wage and denied them overtime pay, breaks and health benefits. Because they say they fear retaliation, the workers are suing under the pseudonym “John Doe” …

Mystery neurological illness plagues slaughterhouse workers

04/01/2008
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has given a name to an illness suffered by employees in pork processing plants in Minnesota and Indiana: progressive inflammatory neuropathy …