Representing Employers In New York
Often times, when an employee commences litigation against his or her employer, the employer takes it personally, and cannot believe, after all the employer has done for this employee, that it is being subject to litigation for charges of discrimination that are just not true.
Our job is to un-personalize it, and more importantly teach the employer how to avoid litigation as defendants in discriminatory or any work-related issues, including how to terminate an employee pursuant to New York Law and avoid liability.
Your employees are not your friends, they are your workers. The two should never ever be misunderstood.
It is important to realize under federal law, an employer is liable for its employees’ discriminatory actions against other employees whether the employer knew or did not know of this discriminatory behavior. Specifically, under federal law the employer can be sued for its employees’ violations of discriminatory statutes and under state law. Managers, supervisors and owners can be sued in their individual capacities as well. This must be avoided.
And, you must pay your employees the correct wages, including overtime pay. Eventually, the employer will pay the price, along with triple damages.
We begin with protecting employers with the drafting of employee handbooks for all professions, including but not limited to medical practices, car dealerships, law firms, educational institutions, not-for-profit organizations, and small businesses.
Then, we perform on-site seminars for employees and management explaining and providing real examples of work-related discrimination violations, including but not limited to gender, sexual harassment, race, age and retaliation as well as hostile work environment for all protected classes. The simplest joke can cause litigation against the employer.
We meet separately with human resources/management personnel and explain in detail the procedures of investigation required for the employers to avoid liability once they become aware of an employee’s formal complaint of discrimination in the workplace.
We draft employee contracts, to include terms and conditions for noncompete and nonsolicitation, and penalties against the employee if these and other clauses in the contract are breached subsequent to the employee’s termination.
We draft exit strategies for employers, including but not limited to severance agreements, which provide consideration to the employee in exchange for the employee releasing the employer forever for any wrongdoing whatsoever pertaining to the employee’s employment with the employer, and penalties for an employee’s breach of that general release.
Often, employers do not realize that they may have a remedy against a former employee who takes away an employer’s customers/clients or uses confidential information of the employer in a new position. Actions available for remedy against the former employee include but are not limited to the faithless servant doctrine, breach of fiduciary duty and even violations of trade secrets. There are remedies available to an employer against an employee subsequent to the termination/resignation of an employee.
New York is an at-will employer, which provides ample protection to employers from frivolous litigation for wrongful termination. Scott Michael Mishkin PC will protect you while alleviating your personal feelings of being victimized.
As an employer, you need to know your rights and remedies, and how to avoid litigation against employees, before being it occurs.
We will do this for you.
