MINNESOTA

EMPLOYMENT LAW

REPORT

The Minnesota Employment Law Report is our award – winning blog offering expert insight to the business community concerning employee relations, labor law, employee benefits, employment litigation and much more.

Denying Employee’s Remote Work Accommodation Request Spurs EEOC Lawsuit

Janell Stanton

In its first COVID-19-related disability accommodation lawsuit, the EEOC alleges that ISS Facility Services (“ISS”) discriminated against its employee, Ronisha Moncrief, when it denied her reasonable request for an accommodation…

EEOC Publishes New Guidance on Employee Opioid Addiction

Colin H. Hargreaves

Opioid addiction continues to be a serious problem in the United States. As with many other prescription medications, opioids present significant challenges to employers, who must address issues relating to…

Letting Employees Sleep on the Job is Not a Reasonable Accommodation

Dennis J. Merley

Employees frequently seek to explain away their job-related misdeeds by claiming that they are simply symptoms of their disabilities. While that may be true, it generally does not matter for…

Disability Plus Medical Limitations Equals No Accommodation If They Are Not Linked

Dennis J. Merley

What happens when an employee has (A) an obvious disability, and (B) a set of unrelated medical limitations needing accommodation? Read on to “C” the answer. Edward Youngman worked as…

Thirty Years of Precedent Was Just Overruled So Expect More Discrimination Claims

Dennis J. Merley

The Minnesota Supreme Court just overruled 30 years of precedent that almost certainly will lead to more disability discrimination cases filed against Minnesota employers. Minneapolis firefighter Keith Daniel injured his…

Court Says Employer Adequately Accommodated Employee With Flesh Eating Virus

Laura I. Bernstein

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals (which rules on cases arising in Minnesota) decided a pretty routine disability accommodation case using some eye-opening and thought proving rationales. Gary Brunckhorst was…

Appeals Court Weighs Issue of Obesity as a Protected Disability

Dennis J. Merley

While obesity is not generally recognized as a disability under the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA), a case currently before the federal Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals may help tip…

The Importance of a Doctor’s Note in a Disability Discrimination Case

Dennis J. Merley

The all-important doctor’s note was the focal point when an employee claimed that she should not have been terminated for her 195th absent day. Sheena Lipp worked in a production…