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Employment Contracts

In employment contracts, use clear, unambiguous terms

04/01/2007

When Florida courts interpret employment contracts, they look first and foremost to the contract language. If it’s clear and unambiguous, they enforce the terms strictly. But if the court questions the meaning of some terms, it will interpret them in a way that benefits the employee …

Protecting Your Trade Secrets

03/19/2007
White Paper published by The HR Specialist, copyright 2007 ______________________ All businesses want to safeguard trade secrets and proprietary information and maintain their customers’ trust. So you will naturally want to let your employees and independent contractors know what you expect of them in this regard. Your options range from making a simple policy statement […]

Employment Laws: Compliance Thresholds

03/15/2007
White Paper published by The HR Specialist, copyright 2007 ______________________ Federal employment laws can be terribly confusing, particularly because they often have different definitions for the size of a business that is exempt from the law. Use the following list to make sure you’re not spending time and money complying with laws that only apply […]

Noncompete Agreements

03/08/2007

HR Law 101: One of the risks you run when key employees quit is that they could potentially leak valuable information. If you take the precaution of having them sign covenants not to compete and confidentiality covenants when they join your organization, you may be able to limit this risk …

What should you do when an employee gets arrested

03/01/2007

You’re driving into work and hear a radio report about a late-night accident caused by an alleged drunk driver. The driver is behind bars. When they say his name, you’re shocked. That’s Bill from marketing! …

Firing a troublemaker? Focus on concrete business reasons

03/01/2007

When it comes time to fire a difficult employee, focus on clear and easily explained legitimate business reasons for the action you want to take. That means documenting any work problems and relating those problems to the major job functions you hired the employee to perform …

Contracts: Your best protection against misclassification suits

02/08/2007
Your contract with an independent contractor establishes payment rates and methods, the nature of the work to be completed, the deadline for completing the job and performance standards. But a well-written contract does much more.

Draft severance packages to comply with age-Bias law

02/01/2007

When employers offer severance packages to employees age 40 or older, those packages must comply with the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act …

Promises, promises: Put incentives in writing; don’t let managers blurt them out

02/01/2007

Remind supervisors to avoid the temptation of making oral promises that they may not be able to keep, even if that means losing an employee who has another job offer …

Illegal firing can cancel terms of noncompete pact

02/01/2007

New York companies that require employees to sign noncompete agreements sometimes make deferred compensation conditional on whether the ex-employee actually complies with that noncompete pact. That’s fine, according to state law. But the deal can collapse, as a new case shows …