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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.

Target pays $2.8 million, agrees to drop hiring tests

10/28/2015
The Target retail chain has agreed to stop using three pre-employment assessments that the EEOC claimed were discriminatory.

Act fast to stop harassment … and still get sued

10/26/2015

It is critical to prevent sexual harassment—especially when a supervisor is involved—instead of relying on your post-harassment policy to block lawsuits. The University of Minnesota just learned that the hard way.

Suit: State didn’t accommodate disability–alcoholism

10/22/2015
A former Assistant Director of the State Lottery has filed suit against the Minnesota State Lottery, the Department of Management and Budget and her former boss, Ed Van Petten. She was fired after being charged with drunken driving in 2012 after injuring an elderly man in a traffic accident. She is yet to stand trial on those charges.

Fired county official denies harassment charges

10/22/2015
The former head of the Dakota County Community Development Agency denied the charges that led to his firing in a meeting with the County Board.

Don’t let FMLA stop planned staffing changes

10/20/2015
Normally, it’s risky to fire someone who has just taken FMLA leave. However, you can terminate such an employee—if you can show that changes were underway before FMLA leave began.

Can we discipline for bad behavior at party?

10/15/2015
Q. At our company holiday party, which was not at the workplace or during work hours, an employee told some inappropriate jokes and put an arm around a co-worker who did not appreciate it and complained. The company is aware that the employee took a leave of absence for treatment of chemical dependency and is concerned that the employee might have been drinking at the party. Can the company discipline the employee? The company would like the employee to get additional help for chemical dependency.

Do you have guidance on résumé retention?

09/14/2015
Q. How long do we have to retain résumés received in response a job posting? Our HR department has asked if we only have to keep those that were considered for the job or if we must keep every résumé that comes in regardless of whether we look at it.

Can employee take intermittent FMLA leave to attend her child’s sporting events?

09/14/2015
Q. An employee’s daughter has diabetes and the employee has intermittent leave to provide assistance and care for her. The employee is now using FMLA leave to attend her daughter’s field hockey games and practices, claiming she needs to be there in case of diabetic complications during athletic events. The health care certification that we received in connection with this FMLA leave request does refer to a need to provide care during “flare ups.” Do we have to continue to permit the mother to attend the games and practices as intermittent FMLA leave?

What should we do? We’re worried that one of our company laptops may contain child porn

09/14/2015
Q. Our HR team has been advised that one of our employees has been arrested for possessing child pornography. This employee has a company laptop computer that is in our worksite. What, if anything, should we be doing with this computer?

DOL releases proposed revisions to ‘white collar’ overtime exemptions

09/14/2015

On July 6, the U.S. Department of Labor published a 295-page Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeking public comments on proposed changes to the “white collar” overtime exemption regulations. The comment period closed on Sept. 4. The DOL proposes specific changes to the salary level requirements for the majority of the white collar exemptions and also seeks commentary regarding potential changes to the duties tests for the exemptions.