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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.

What steps should we take to ensure supervisors issue consistent discipline?

12/02/2013
Q. We are having a hard time keeping discipline consistent between supervisors. To promote consistency, upper management would like to implement a new discipline policy setting out what disciplinary steps should be followed. Do you recommend this?

Warn employees: Text messages may be evidence

12/02/2013

Text messages make communication easy and convenient, but casual comments dashed off electronically may come back to haunt you. That’s why you should remind employees that texts should be composed with the same careful deliberation as letters and memos.

Can we ban e-cigarettes?

11/19/2013
Q. Over the past few months I have been seeing more and more electronic cigarettes in our city. Last week, an employee walked into our office while smoking an electronic cigarette. I’d like to ban their use in our offices. I’ve heard that e-cigarettes are just as addictive as the real things.

What should we do about email still on former employee’s company-issued cellphone?

11/19/2013
Q. We give our employees company phones. An employee recently resigned and turned in her phone to her supervisor, in compliance with our technology policy. A week later, it came to my attention that the supervisor had not deleted the departed employee’s email that was still on the phone. A new hire who had been issued the phone could read those messages. What should we do?

Weigh pros, cons of surveillance in wired workplace

11/19/2013
As technology becomes more and more intrusive, today’s employees naturally wonder how far their employers can pry. Carefully weigh whether any form of employee surveillance is right for your organization. 

Senate passes ENDA, House vote unlikely as ever

11/19/2013
The Senate on Nov. 7 voted 64 to 32 to approve the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would make it illegal for employers to discriminate against employees on the basis of actual or perceived sexual ­orientation or gender identity.

Harassing restaurateur braces for court’s damages award

11/19/2013
A high-profile sexual harassment case that went all the way to the Min­­ne­­sota Supreme Court will now proceed to the penalty phase with no opposition from the defendant.

Minnetonka banker beats arson rap, settles harassment lawsuit

11/19/2013
Five former employees of Min­­ne­­tonka’s Equity Bank have agreed to a settlement in a lawsuit that alleged that the bank’s CEO barraged them with vulgar tirades, threatened to burn down their houses, kill them and dismember their children.

Unclear rules could warrant unemployment benefits

11/19/2013
Someone who is fired for breaking a workplace rule isn’t entitled to unemployment benefits. That’s because rule-breaking is misconduct. But if the rule is unclear, all bets are off.

No unemployment if jail prevents coming to work

11/19/2013
You can terminate an employee for missing work because he had to spend the night in jail. He won’t be eligible for unemployment benefits because the firing was for misconduct related to regular attendance.