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...
If you use employment or independent contractor agreements, this article will help you (1) ask the right questions of people in your organization to avoid disputes and (2) put together clear agreements for employees and independent contractors.
Compensation
One of the most important issues to get right is the compensation that will be paid to...
Why should HR know how to draft noncompetes, confidentiality agreements, and other similar contracts? Because after years of non-enforcement, the courts are now taking these agreements more seriously. Some employers are now using noncompetes to their advantage:
In June, a judge refused to dismiss a trade secrets suit filed by The Clorox Co....
Recruiting good employees is tough, and once you have the fish on the line, you don't want to lose it. With an extended hiring process, however, there's the risk of saying too much to maintain an applicant's interest. As one Alabama employer recently showed, a few carefully chosen words can keep you off the hook when you're not...
Employee handbooks often provide the only clear evidence of the terms and conditions of employment between an employer and employee. Asking employees to sign an acknowledgment form that unmistakably incorporates the handbook into their terms and conditions of employment provides sound evidence that they agreed to adhere to the...
Your company has become very concerned about the increasing costs and frequency of employee lawsuits. As an HR manager, you recognize corporate trends and incorporate a mandatory arbitration clause into the current employee handbook, hoping that by requiring employees to arbitrate all their employment disputes, you may be better...
"Ask Mark" is a monthly feature of Nebraska Employment Law Letter. Please submit any questions you have about situations involving labor and employment law issues to schorr@eslaw.com.
Q: We have a number of positions within our organization for which we conduct preemployment background checks, including criminal...
If you induce a prospective employee to come to work for you by making representations that you know aren't true, you might be setting yourself up to be sued. Recently, an employee of a North Carolina employer claimed that happened to him. The employer, however, was able to show that the employee's claim was off base....
In a June 8, 2006, decision, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that an employer's broadly worded mandatory arbitration policy was unlawful and ordered that two fired workers be reinstated with back pay, in part because the policy could be interpreted to bar employee complaints to the Board. Read further to see what it...
Employers that implement binding arbitration programs to resolve discrimination and other employment complaints outside the union setting often face situations in which the employee won't agree in writing to the arbitration procedure. A recent decision by the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes Missouri) gives...
