Employment
Contracts
Copyright TKA 2008
Employment contracts
If you are a high level employee or if you are relocating to take a job, you may receive an employment contract. The contract will set out the basis of your compensation, the term of your employment, your benefits, your expectations, the expectations of the company, the bases for any dismissal, requirements to keep certain information confidential and a restrictive covenant clause. Your employer may attempt to prevent you from competing after your employment has ended. This is known as a restrictive covenant and generally involves restrictions of time (how long you have to wait before you can compete with your employer), restrictions of geography (how far away you need to go in order to compete), and work restrictions (what jobs you cannot take because the employer believes they will compete with its business). If you have been given an employment contract, you should let us review it and give you an opinion on its clauses prior to signing.
If you have signed an employment agreement and your employment is ending or you wish to end your employment before the contract runs out but you're concerned about restrictive or punitive clauses which may follow you into your new career or enterprise, you need to call us. Neglecting to understand the force and effect of terms and conditions of an employment contract can cause you to be a defendant in a lawsuit brought by the employer. Not only will you not be able to move on to your next career level or your next employment that you may end up paying a tremendous amount of money for your breach of contract, while being restricted by a court of law in not being able to work in the only profession or career you have expertise in. Any failure to get sophisticated legal input on every aspect of your employment contract puts you in significant peril for the future.
Severance agreements
When your employment ends, you may be given a severance agreement. Sometimes the employer is obligated by contract to give you a certain amount of severance, generally a week or two for every year you have been employed but most often, severance is a way of ensuring that you will not ring a lawsuit against your employer. In exchange for a certain amount of money, payable on a monthly basis and for the continuation of benefits for a limited time, the employer demands that you release it and all its employees and agents from any and all claims you could possibly bring for anything at any time (except workers compensation which is excluded). If you have a discrimination claim and your company is offering you a severance package, you need to take that severance package to us so we can evaluate whether it is worth signing or whether you would be better off suing your employer. Also, you need to be very careful regarding language which indicates you have resigned from your employment. The admission of a resignation can prevent you from getting unemployment compensation and some employers, in this stealthy and underhanded manner, sometimes get their terminated employees to forego their unemployment, by paying them a relative pittance in return.
215-750-3134
Timothy Kolman & Associates
Since 1991
