Employment Contracts

Supreme Court to hear variety of employment-related cases

11/14/2013

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a number of cases during the 2013-14 term that could affect employers.

When settlement requires confidentiality, tell everyone to keep lips sealed

11/12/2013

Settling a case early on can have advantages. One of these is that you can include a confidentiality clause that bars a former employee from talking about the case. Now a California court has said that such clauses are valid, meaning you can sue a former employee who breaks a confidentiality agreement.

When competition might come from within, keep employees honest

08/28/2013

It’s a situation that happens more often than you might think: An employer finds out that one of its employees is preparing to leave and set up her own shop. But is the employer handcuffed, unable to do anything about the upstart competitor because this employee didn’t sign a noncompetition agreement?

Warn bosses about personal liability risk

08/07/2013

Remind supervisors that the integrity of the performance evaluation process depends on their honest assessment. Providing anything less may mean a court date and personal liability under North Carolina law.

Company signature not required on arbitration agreement

08/07/2013

Most employers that use arbitration agreements require employees to sign them. If that’s your practice, don’t worry about getting the company’s “signature” on the dotted line. As long as the company can show it intends to be bound by the agreement, it is valid with just the employee’s signature.

EEOC seeks to block book company’s severance releases

07/30/2013

North Carolina-based national book distributor Baker & Taylor faces challenges to language in the release it includes in all its severance packages. The EEOC claims the release violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by forcing employees to sign “broad, misleading and unenforceable” agreements to receive severance pay.

Despite high-profile cases, class-action waivers still aren’t silver bullets in California

07/23/2013

For years, many California courts refused to enforce class-action waivers, exposing California businesses to class-action liability regardless of any agreement with employees or customers to forgo class litigation. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion was supposed to change all that. It didn’t.

California court to decide key arbitration case

07/23/2013

In an important decision on whether employers can limit an employee’s access to an administrative hearing on wage claims, the California Supreme Court has ordered the parties to file supplemental briefs in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. In American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed its long-standing rule that arbitration clauses under the Federal Arbitration Act will be enforced.

Can an offer letter create liability?

07/17/2013

Q. Our company recently terminated a manager who had been with us for less than three months. He just seemed not to be the right fit. Now the former employee is threatening to sue, saying he left a good opportunity to take a job with us, based on our offer and what was said in the hiring process. We did use an offer letter, which stated that employment would be at-will and that the offer letter did not constitute a contract of employment. Do we have cause for concern?

Lab must pay $2.73 million to wrongly fired workers

06/27/2013

A San Francisco jury has awarded $2,729,037 to five former employees of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who alleged wrongful termination and breach of their employment contracts.