|
EMPLOYEE'S
PERSPECTIVE While you are still employed. If you are concerned or suspicious that your employer may treat
you unfairly, document everything you can. Document all of your interactions with management and co-workers, taking notes
about what people said and when they said it. Save or print e-mails relating to your job. Be on the lookout for comments suggesting
some bias against you, particularly a bias based on your gender, race, religion, age, disability, or sexual orientation. Even
if the comments don’t seem that helpful to you at the time, they may be very helpful to your lawyer down the road. Also,
be sure to keep copies of your employment contract or offer letter (if you have one), and any company policies, handbooks,
etc. After your employment has ended. Job
Search. The law imposes a duty
on terminated employees to “mitigate” their damages. This means that you must make reasonable efforts to find
another job as soon as possible. So conduct a thorough job search, and document every step of that search. Emotional
Distress. You should also document
any emotional distress that you are feeling. Take note of concrete manifestations of that distress – sleep disturbances,
loss of appetite, mood swings, expressions of anger, changed relationships with family or significant others, etc. Consulting
a therapist can help you deal with these common and very real effects of unfair treatment in the workplace, and help document
these conditions to prove emotional distress in court. Unemployment Application. You should apply for unemployment compensation
as soon as possible. Information is available at http://www.mass.gov/det. Contact an Attorney. For the most common employment-discrimination
claims, an employee has only 300 days after the last discriminatory act to file a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission
Against Discrimination. It takes time to conduct the necessary investigation before filing a complaint. So contact an attorney
as soon as possible.
EMPLOYER'S PERSPECTIVE Employee Discipline and Termination Taking disciplinary action against employees can be nerve wracking
for business owners. By consulting an employment lawyer to help develop policies governing employee review and discipline,
you can deter costly lawsuits by disgruntled former employees. Documenting substandard performance as it occurs will help
minimize discrimination lawsuits down the road. Despite a company’s best intentions, if you don’t document criticism
until you fire an employee, that employee will have a strong argument that the criticism is just a “pretext” for
discrimination. Finally, when you have no choice but to terminate an employee, be sure to consult an employment lawyer to
help spot legal issues you may not have considered. Policies Prohibiting Discriminatory Conduct The best defense against
many employment discrimination claims is to have a strong policy prohibiting discriminatory or insensitive statements or acts.
You must communicate the policy to all employees, and enforce the policy clearly and consistently. Create policies with the
help of an employment lawyer, to avoid unintentionally creating a contract with your employees. Noncompete and Nonsolicitation
Agreements In Massachusetts, courts will not enforce a non-compete agreement unless it is supported by
a “legitimate business interest” (such as customer relationships or trade secrets), and if its duration and geographic
scope are reasonably necessary to protect that interest. Even where there is a legitimate business interest, there are other
potential defenses that employees may raise against non-compete agreements. There is also legislation pending in Massachusetts
that would restrict employers’ ability to enforce non-compete agreements. For this and many other reasons, employers
should consider relying on non-solicitation agreements to protect their customer relationships. The law governing non-compete
and non-solicitation agreements is complex, so employers and employees alike should consult an experienced attorney with questions
regarding these agreements.
|
