Employment Law

As companies grow they acquire or build intellectual property capital along with products and inventory. This intellectual property may include processes, formulae, data, functional specifications, computer programs, blueprints, know-how, improvements, discoveries, developments, designs, inventions, techniques, marketing plans, strategies, forecasts, new products, unpublished financial statements, budgets, projections, licenses, prices, costs and customer and supplier lists and/or information transferred to the company…

For an employee to successfully claim that his employer retaliated against him for filing a discrimination claim he would need to show that he suffered a materially adverse employment action. Failure to get a desired office space or job assignment may not be enough to bring a discrimination claim. In the decision of Rebecca Lockridge v. University of Maine System,…

Most people understand that a worker may be held responsible in a civil action for his own negligence at work which causes injury to others or for his knowingly criminal conduct at work. What workers must also understand is that under certain criminal statutes they may be held individually liable for their own negligent conduct even if conducted within the…

If you are in business or just starting a new business, at some time your company will either be asked to execute a Non Disclosure Agreement or your company will want another party to execute an agreement that requires the receiving person or entity to protect your company’s confidential information. These Agreements are sometimes called confidentiality agreements or limited use…

When an employer fires an employee and provides her severance pay she would not otherwise be entitled to, that employer should seriously consider requiring the employee to sign a release in exchange for the severance pay. A clear, properly drafted and signed release may prevent the employer from incurring substantial costs in time and money to defend a potential legal…

If you use your employer’s computer system for e-mail or other Internet access, do so with the knowledge that your employer may monitor what e-mails were sent and what Internet sites you visited. Workers should not legally expect privacy in such activities. Yet to remove any expectation of privacy by workers, employers should provide workers with a written policy on…

American soldiers who temporarily leave their current employment to serve our country in Iraq, Afghanistan, or otherwise are afforded protections under the employment laws upon their return. A recent Massachusetts jury verdict and thereafter decision by the trial judge upholding the verdict provides a clear message that both judges and juries will enforce these laws. On January 25, 2010, a…

One of the most important decisions a company makes is who its employees will be. Given that fact, simply relying upon a resume without follow-up reference checks of the candidates is a mistake. An employment application gives the employer the opportunity to make appropriate inquiries regarding the information on the application in order to evaluate the candidate rather than simply…

Employers should not disclose information contained in a personnel file without being presented with either a release signed by the worker granting permission for the employer to disclose that information or a legally valid subpoena. Where there is a release or a legally valid subpoena, the employer should disclose only information specifically authorized through the release or subpoena. If the…

A disabled employee who is doing a poor job should anticipate getting fired if he has not told his employer he needs an accommodation for his disability. Such a firing led to the Massachusetts Federal Court lawsuit of Peter Kinch v. Quest Diagnostics, Inc. Kinch had worked for Quest for approximately 25 years before he was fired on November 2005.…