01/20/2012
Do you include an arbitration agreement in your employment applications? If so, it may not be enforceable, according to a recent decision by the Court of Appeal of California.
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01/18/2012
In a significant legal victory, the EEOC has persuaded a federal court to limit what employers can include in so-called last-chance agreements. The court concluded that the EEOC was right when it argued that agreements threatening retaliation are illegal ...
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01/05/2012
Creating independent-contractor agreements is not a do-it-yourself job. Always get expert legal help.
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12/21/2011
Occasionally, you may decide to create alternative work arrangements based on written agreements. How you do that is crucial to retaining at-will status.
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12/16/2011
The Court of Appeal of California has handed a significant victory to employers that use arbitration agreements as a condition of employment. As long as the underlying terms of the agreement are fair and the arbitration process impartial, the court will send a case to arbitration even if the employee had no choice but to sign the agreement.
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12/14/2011
Minnesota law doesn’t give employers a clear right to demand the return of copied documents when an employee leaves. It’s one reason that you may want an employment contract, noncompete agreement and confidentiality guarantee all wrapped up into one for employees who work with sensitive information.
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11/23/2011
Q. Can I ask employees who are already with the company to execute noncompete agreements?
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11/18/2011
Q. I’m aware that California law generally does not allow employers to use noncompete agreements. Are there any noncompete agreements that California courts will enforce?
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11/18/2011
It’s hard to create binding and enforceable arbitration agreements in California. Some courts considering California arbitration agreements have held that actions brought by employees under the California Private Attorney General Act of 2004 (PAGA) can’t be blocked by arbitration agreements.
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11/18/2011
When claims involve unpaid overtime or misclassification, attorneys representing employees naturally want to handle the case as a class or collective action. Some employers think that if they include an arbitration agreement in their terms and conditions of employment, a wage-and-hour claim has to go to arbitration as an individual claim. That’s not necessarily true.
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10/12/2011
Employers may be sold on the advantages of arbitration over litigation and want to give the process a try. But if they don’t do it just right, chances are they’ll end up spending more time and money. That’s because employees may go to court to challenge an employer’s right to arbitration, adding what amounts to a second lawsuit to the underlying complaint.
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10/12/2011
Q. We have an employee who is returning to work for us after having worked for a competitor. Normally, we require new employees to agree to a noncompete, with a 15-mile-radius restriction. In this case, we’d like to extend the area to a 30-mile zone around our facility. Can we have a different arrangement with her than the one we have with our other employees?
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10/11/2011
Don’t give in to the temptation to save money by writing your own arbitration agreements or using a standard template available from many arbitration services. Instead, have your attorney review your organization’s unique needs and draft a custom agreement.
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09/16/2011
Q. An executive wants to retire in one year and gradually reduce her schedule until then. Our business needs don’t allow us to have this executive role be part-time on a long-term basis. Can we approve this request on the condition that the executive sign an agreement binding her to retire within one year?
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09/02/2011
Employers often insist that key employees sign noncompete agreements to ensure the employee will not use information or customer contacts gained during the course of employment to benefit a competitor. Several states have recently changed their laws governing noncompetes. In other states, courts have responded to unusual sets of facts to render surprising decisions.
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