Employment Contracts Legal Questions

Well if you're afraid now to say anything, I'm not sure any advice you get in this forum is going to be helpful from a practical standpoing.  What if I say you're entitled to extra pay?  What are you going to do about it?  Abuse of "assistant managers" in the retail world is well known.  They try to characterize you as management so the can avoid paying you overtime.  There have been many lawsuits over this issue.  The answer really depends on our job duties and specific facts.  The retail world is a tough place to be -- if its causing you anxiety best to find a new line of work as soon as you can. ... Read More

You can probably refuse to provide the information if your job duties do not involve use of your car.  I don't think there's any particlar law that speaks to this issue.  If you don't provide the information and you're fired, you'd be eligible for unemployment compensation in all likelihood.  You can also redact any information from the documents that you deem to be confidential and try that approach .... Read More

In order to be eligible for overtime (assuming you are a non-exempt employee under federal law), you'd have to work in excess of 40 hours in a weekly pay period however that pay period is defined by your employer.  So If you work more than 40 hours in the pay period from Friday to Thursday, you'd be eligible for overtime most likely. ... Read More

Based on your general description of your job it sounds like the employer exercised sufficient dominion and control over you and your duties and provided the means for the performance of those duties. Not mentioned is the fact that apparently you were also not provided with pay stubs setting forth all proper deductions....this is also in and of itself a violation of California law.....to the extent you were improperly paid and taxes were not paid that would appear to be a possible case of wage theft and/or a failure to pay full promised wages...finally, there is also an issue of misrepresentation of the terms and conditions of the employment..with regard to the latter issue it would be helpful to know if you turned down another position when you took this one, left another position when you took this one or moved from one location to another when taking this position.........there are specific statutes covering those types of facts..........Stephan Math Esq.... Read More

I would advise you to contact the Labor Commissioner's office and have them take a look at it....if you were misclassified they may well represent you to collect overtime pay etc....Generally, whether or not you should have been dealt with as an employee depends on a number of factors in order to determine whether the employer exercised dominion and control over you in the performance of your duties. This usally means amongst other things, looking at whether they provided the place at which the duties were to be performed, the tools or means with which you were to perform those duties, the hours and times such duties were to be performed...Stephan Math Esq... Read More

Sounds to me that there is a question here as to whether you truly are contractors or in fact misclassified employees......that depends on the facts, generally if the employer controls the means and methods of the employment and provides the tools and /or the site at which duties are to be performed and controls the hours of the employee then there is a good chance that you are misclassified.....you may want to run this by the California Labor Commissioner's office for a review by them.......Stephan Math Esq.... Read More

  The Fair Labor Standards Act (federal) requires employers to compensate employees who work more than 40 hours in a week at the premium rate of one and one-half times their base rate of pay.  There are also work regulations (state) that require that you be given breaks. I would suggest that you contact the Tennessee Department of Labor and discuss your concerns with them.  ... Read More

Many employers have a policy that they will only confirm dates of employment, to avoid getting sued either because they give a bad reference and the former employee doesn't get the job, or they give a good reference and the former employee winds up embezzling millions from the new employer.  However, this is not  uniform, particularly in smaller businesses, and somea former employers do provide the reason for termination.... Read More

It would appear to me that by refusing to pay for arbitration that they are in breach of their own arbitration policies and more importantly probably provides you with the option of going to court rather than arbitration where you could argue that by refusing to participate and pay as agreed that they have waived their right to arbitration. I believe that if you wanted to enforce the arbitration agreement you would have to file a motion in court to compel arbitration. This would be a very unusual situation only because it is normally the employer rather than the employee who seeks to compel arbitration given that most employers and attorneys view the arbitration process as being more beneficial to the employer than the employee.......If I were handling this case I would file the matter in court and let the bank move to compel arbitration and defend against that by contending that they have waived their right by their refusal to participate in arbitration and pay the fees as agreed...Stephan Math Esq.... Read More

In my experience most offers of employment are contingent. In other words they are usually conditioned on passing a background check or drug test or the like. However, if this was not the case and you have an unqualified offer of employment and in reliance have turned down other written offers of employment then you may have a claim for misrepresentation. It would be important for us to review the offer made to you in order to be more certain in our evaluation. Stephan Math Esq.... Read More

This sounds like it may be a case of pregnancy discrimination. You should call my office or another attorney to discuss your employment and termination. My firm represents employees throughout Ohio. Feel free to call for a free consultation at 1-614-949-1181. You can also find information about pregnancy discrimination here   Ohio pregnancy discrimination attorney www.mcoffmanlegal.com... Read More

You should not sign a contract with which you don't agree, but you need to know that, unless you have a current contract in place, you are an employee at will and can already be fired without cause or notitication (including for refusing to sign the offered contract) and your pay can be cut without cause or notice.... Read More

I have serious doubts that the $5,000 training fee repayment would be enforceable, although it is possible that it would be if your employer actually incurred that expense for your training.  I see no reason why the restriction on performing services within 25 miles would not be enforceable - it almost certainly would not be enforceable if it provided that you couldnt' compete within 25 miles AFTER your employment was terminated, but your employer is certainly allowed to bar you from moonlighting while employed.  Moreover, as an at will employee, your employer can fire you for almost any reason; you could be fired for moonlighting even if the provision was not in the contract.  From the little you've written, being fired, and possibly being ineligible to collect unemployment, seems like the only consequence of breaching the 25 mile provision, but it is possible, depending on exactly what the contract provides, that you could be liable for damages for such a breach.  I also see no problem with a commission-based compensation scheme (assuming no problem with minimum wage laws, on which I have no expertise and am not offering any opinion.)  As for whether this is a fair contract, only you can decide that for yourself.... Read More