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Employment Contracts

Turn to Last-Chance Agreements for Legal Leverage

10/01/2005

Many employers use "last-chance agreements" to give employees one final opportunity to turn around attendance, productivity and attitude problems. Here’s good news if you use last-chance agreements on employees with drug and alcohol problems: The ADA and many state laws give you the leverage to keep employees clean … and fire them if they’re not …

Continued employment enough to bind employees to noncompete pact

10/01/2005
You may be afraid that your top salesperson or IT whiz is about to jump ship to the competition, but you failed to sign those employees to noncompete agreements when you …

Converting staff to contractors isn’t bias, but do it correctly

10/01/2005
Terminating a class of employees and offering them to return as independent contractors can save you thousands. But it may raise eyebrows. That’s why, to avoid lawsuits under the Age Discrimination …

Know the 5 ‘musts’ for age-discrimination waivers

10/01/2005
Issue: Very precise wording is needed when employees waive their rights to sue for age discrimination.
Risk: Employers often treat age-bias waivers like any other waiver, a critical mistake that …

You can’t ask employees to sign away FMLA rights

10/01/2005
Issue: Severance packages usually ask departing employees to waive their rights to file various employment lawsuits.
Risk: If you include FMLA in that mix, you’ll risk having the whole package …

Don’t ask employees to sign away their FMLA rights

09/01/2005
In severance agreements, employers typically require employees to sign promises not to file employment-related lawsuits. But don’t try to include FMLA rights in that
waiver.
Why? A new ruling …

Clarify ‘for cause’ terminations in severance-pact wording

09/01/2005
Issue: Severance agreements that deny severance payments to employees fired “for cause.”
Risk: Failing to clarify “for cause” could result in having to pay severance to people fired for blatant …

Go overboard to clarify details in age-discrimination waivers

07/01/2005
When terminating employees, it’s smart to ask them to sign agreements that waive their rights to sue your organization for discrimination or wrongful discharge. Typically, employers wrap such waivers into severance …

Don’t ‘oversell’ the job; oral promises can bind you

07/01/2005
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Review severance pact for clarity; define ‘for cause’ terminations

06/01/2005
Many employers offer severance to soften the blow of terminations and to buy a little insurance against lawsuits. But for those agreements to be enforceable, it’s important that you define the …