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Minnesota

Employment Lawyer Network:
Minnesota

Carl Crosby Lehmann (Editor)

Minnesota Employment Law

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

Click for Full Bio

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.

University of Minnesota admits fumbling on athletic director hire

09/14/2015
University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler says he takes “full responsibility” for the botched hiring of Norwood Teague as the university’s athletic director. Teague resigned Aug. 7 after admitting he sexually harassed two administrators at a university leadership event.

Working overtime hours can be an essential function

09/14/2015
Working overtime can be an essential job function. If disabled employees can’t work overtime, you may not have to accommodate them.

Mentioning pregnancy during discipline doesn’t prove bias

09/14/2015

Rest easy: You can talk about an employee’s pregnancy while also discussing discipline against her. As long as you make it clear that you are disciplining the employee because of issues that have nothing to do with her pending childbirth, mentioning pregnancy while discussing potential penalties won’t make you lose a discrimination suit.

Disability isn’t ‘get out of jail free’ card–it must be revealed before discipline

08/24/2015

Some workers who learn they’re about to be disciplined or even fired for poor behavior may try to use an alleged disability as an excuse. But if they never revealed before that they have a disability, it’s too late to try that tactic on the eve of being punushed.

Anticipate lawsuit by offering second chance, fresh supervisor to struggling employee

08/24/2015
If a marginal employee is having a hard time getting along with his boss, think about giving him a second chance with a new supervisor. It may help—and it won’t hurt if you still end up firing the employee.

Do we have to hire the partying applicant?

08/19/2015
Q. We are hiring a new salesperson, and were about to offer the position to a seemingly well-qualified applicant. As part of our reference check, a social media search was also conducted. Several photos of the candidate passed out surrounded by empty booze bottles at what looks like a fraternity party and other photos of partying were found. We are considering not hiring this applicant because of the results of the social media search. Would that present any problem for us legally?

Must we permit transitional work following off-duty injuries?

08/19/2015
Q. An employee was injured away from work. He is now demanding to return to work as an accommodation for his injuries, which he claims is a disability under both the ADA and Minnesota Human Rights Act. We do have a transitional work program, whereby we create work to aid workers injured on the job in returning to work. The work involves duties that we otherwise outsource, such as floor sweeping, etc. Our injured employee is not able to return to his prior position due to the physical nature of that job, and is now demanding that we provide him this sort of transitional work. Must we?

Is employee in jail entitled to FMLA leave?

08/19/2015
Q. We have an employee who is on final warning due to his poor attendance. The employee recently requested FMLA leave to care for his wife. While on FMLA leave, it was reported in the newspaper that the employee was arrested for drug possession. He was in jail for several days, including several workdays. The employee is now out of jail and wants to return to work. Can we treat the employee’s absences from work while in jail as occurrences under our attendance policy, or do we have to treat the time as FMLA leave, even though the employee could not have been caring for his wife the days in question since he was in jail?

Personal data on business systems: The high cost of curiosity

08/19/2015
The intermingling of personal and business computing is creating traps for employers. What are you allowed to see, alter, delete … and take?

Federal court edits noncompete pact

08/19/2015
A federal court in Minnesota has invoked Texas law to rewrite a noncompete agreement that it decided was too broad.