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Employment Contracts

Carefully word draw-against-commission contracts—or be prepared to lose money

04/09/2009

If you pay employees on a commission basis and allow them to draw against those commissions, be very careful how you word the contract language. If you don’t specify that employees must repay any draws they do not earn back with commissions, they won’t have to.

Can we cut employee pay to reduce costs?

04/09/2009

Q. We are considering layoffs but would like to avoid them. Can we cut employees’ pay because of tough economic times?

Settlement agreement may be binding even without signature

03/30/2009

Here’s something to consider when deciding whether to settle a case. An oral agreement may be binding even if the parties never actually signed a written version. It’s a contract as long as the parties clearly agreed to the essential terms.

Court upholds WaMu’s arbitration agreement

03/30/2009

According to her complaint, former Washington Mutual Bank assistant branch manager Michelle Williams was fired after she made an “anonymous” call to a company hotline with concerns about a co-worker’s immigration status …

Settling case? Double-check the dollar amount

03/30/2009

Alert for employers settling workers’ comp lawsuits—or any other kind: When negotiations are completed, make sure the dollar amount written into the agreement is the one everyone agreed to!

Seek attorney’s help to draft noncompete agreement

03/30/2009

What’s worse than not having a noncompete agreement? One that doesn’t meet North Carolina’s strict requirements—and gets tossed out of court. Avoid this problem by having a North Carolina attorney draft agreements.

School district pulls salary scale bait-and-switch

03/26/2009

A hearing examiner for the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board has ruled the Loyalsock Township School District engaged in an unfair labor practice when it failed to release the salary scale the district and teachers’ union agreed upon in the final contract.

Offering a job? Do it the legal way

03/24/2009

When it comes to making job offers, your hiring managers could be inadvertently locking your organization into an employment contract with the new hire. It’s a common mistake, and only a few words can send you down the wrong path. Follow these six do’s and don’ts when offering a job:

Know what’s in that contract before you ask anyone to sign a noncompete

03/12/2009

More and more employers are asking their HR staffs to prepare noncompete agreements to prevent employees from taking trade secrets to competitors. Before you pull out a standard form or download one from the Internet, consider the consequences.

What’s the Minnesota law on confidentiality agreements? Are they enforceable?

03/12/2009

Q. Our company works with proprietary and confidential information. We would like to protect ourselves from having that information get disclosed to competing companies. Are confidentiality agreements enforceable? If so, must they be signed at the start of a new employee’s job in order to be valid?