Nothing on this page is advice about your job, and no article can be. If you want your own facts looked at, a Minnesota employment attorney can do that — and several of the deadlines described on this site are short enough that waiting is itself a decision.
Also called: conditional privilege; employer's privilege.
For a communication to be privileged, it must be made upon a proper occasion, from a proper motive, and must be based upon reasonable or probable cause.
Kuechle v. Life’s Companion P.C.A., Inc., 653 N.W.2d 214, 220 (Minn. Ct. App. 2002) (citing Stuempges v. Parke, Davis & Co., 297 N.W.2d 252, 256–57 (Minn. 1980)). In Lewis v. Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, 389 N.W.2d 876, 890 (Minn. 1986), the supreme court concluded that “an employer’s communication to an employee of the reason for discharge may present a proper occasion upon which to recognize a qualified privilege,” and held the privilege “may be lost if it is abused,” with the burden on the plaintiff to show abuse. A privilege can also fail before abuse is reached: in Kuechle a cursory investigation defeated it at the threshold, and “[w]here there is no privilege, there is no need for respondent to prove malice.” 653 N.W.2d at 220.
Where this comes up
- Repeating Your Employer's False Reason to a Job Interviewer Can Be the "Publication" in a Minnesota Defamation Case — but Compulsion, Foreseeability, and Proof of the Interviews Are All Required
- A Minnesota employer may say far more in a reference than dates of employment — including documented theft, harassment, or violence — and § 181.967 is a shield for the employer, not a gag rule
- Minnesota Gives You Fifteen Working Days to Demand the Reason You Were Fired — and the Duty Never Arises Unless You Ask in Writing
Sources checked September 8, 2026. Citations independently verified against the primary source September 8, 2026.