Gray Plant Mooty
Minneapolis, Minnesota
www.GPMLaw.com
Carl.Lehmann@GPMLaw.com
(612) 632-3234
Carl 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.
Q. An HR colleague told me that government agencies have stepped up their scrutiny of independent contractor relationships. She said employers that have such relationships, or routinely have consultants working alongside employees, should beware. Can you shed any light on this report? What should we do?
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Q. Last year an employee explained an absence by referring to his rights under Minnesota law to attend school activities. What exactly do Minnesota laws say about a parent’s right to be away from work because of school activities or to take care of children?
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Q. We recently offered employees the opportunity to participate in an early retirement program, and several employees elected to take us up on the offer. Are they eligible for the new 65% COBRA subsidy?
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Q. After repeatedly warning an employee about her poor performance, we recently terminated her. At the termination meeting, she complained for the first time that she felt she’d been held to higher standards based on her gender. She has now filed for unemployment benefits. While we don’t think she’s entitled to the benefits, we wonder whether it makes sense to fight her claim. What do you think?
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Q. I have heard about a new federal law that makes it possible for a nonemployee to sue our company for discrimination. Is that correct? How could such a claim come up and is there anything we can do about it?
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Q. Due to the poor economy, we recently cut one of our manufacturing shift’s hours by 60%. This will continue indefinitely. We gave the affected employees two weeks’ advance notice, but we have now received a letter from an attorney claiming we should have given them 60 days’ advance notice. Is that right?
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Q. We are a small start-up company. We have an office manager whom we pay $350 per week. I understand that, in order to be exempt from overtime labor laws, we would need to pay her at least $455 per week. We can’t afford to pay that amount, but are willing to provide her stock in the company. Will that help?
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Q. We need to cut two employees from our marketing department. One of the employees we would prefer to keep was hired only six months ago. If we don’t base our decision on seniority, are we more susceptible to discrimination claims?
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The EEOC and state and local agencies have been filing more administrative charges in recent years. As the recession deepens and more people lose their jobs, that trend is likely to continue. Because administrative charges can be precursors to discrimination lawsuits, it’s critical for you to handle them properly. These 10 tips will help you prepare to respond:
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Q. My company provides health care services. Recently, a deaf client said we had to pay for a sign language interpreter. Is that true?
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