The concept of an employment contract seems simple enough: “You work for me and I pay you for that work.”
But there are some very important contractual nuances to the relationship between employers and employees that human resources professionals should be aware of and prepared to deal with.
First, not all contracts are written...
We are seeing more and more cases involving noncompete agreements, so we were very interested in a recent case from the Fort Worth Court of Appeals. A trial court denied an employer's effort to stop a former employee from working for a competitor, which violated the employee's noncompete. In an interesting twist, the appeals court said the trial...
Did Solvay Chemicals fire longtime employee Steven Smothers because of a first-time safety violation or because it was tired of his frequent absences due to an ongoing medical disability? The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose rulings apply to all Wyoming employers) recently ruled that Smothers provided sufficient evidence to suggest that...
Did Solvay Chemicals fire longtime employee Steven Smothers because of a first-time safety violation or because it was tired of his frequent absences due to an ongoing medical disability? The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose rulings apply to all Colorado employers) recently ruled that Smothers provided sufficient evidence to suggest that...
The Kansas Court of Appeals recently affirmed that an employer may change an at-will employee's compensation going forward as long as it notifies the employee of the change before implementing it. Read on to find out how one employer took the proper steps to protect itself from a breach-of-contract claim when it changed the company's bonus...
The 8th Circuit recently held that a former employee's actions during litigation were sufficient to uphold a trial court's ruling that his claim should be dismissed.
Facts
Clarence Hughes was the property manager for St. Louis Produce Market from 1990 until his position was eliminated in August 2009. When it terminated his employment, the...
Whether an employee handbook can be considered a contract is frequently a subject of debate. Employees sometimes try to argue that the handbook is a contract that binds the employer to progressive discipline or other benefits of employment. For their part, employers generally take steps to avoid the determination that a handbook is a contract,...
Denise Taylor is the former head women's basketball coach at Jackson State University (JSU). She was one of the first coaches in the WNBA, coached at JSU for 10 seasons, and led the program to the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship in 2008. Nevertheless, she was terminated on June 28, 2011, in the middle of a three-year contract. JSU...
This month, we examine two lawsuits filed in Richmond federal district court. In one case, the employee claimed his employer engaged in age discrimination; the other case is a breach-of-contract action.
Age discrimination claim moves forward
Charles Wright began working as a car salesman for CARFAX, Inc., in 2008. Wright was 62 years old at...
The Maryland District Court recently denied an employer's request for dismissal of a former employee's severance pay claim. The employee claimed that the company had improperly denied him benefits under its severance pay plan by improperly manipulating his termination date. The court ruled in favor of the employer on the claim that it breached its...
