Is it legal to instruct an employee not to put contract concerns in writing? TL;DR My COO sent me a contract that would amend an existing employment term (salary). I raised concerns regarding the terms of the contact. COO explicitly told me you don't need to put it in writing. With respect to New York State / New York City employment or contact law, is it strictly legal to suggest or instruct employees not to put contract concerns in writing? Background Yesterday my CEO announced via email that they made the decision to cut salaries. My COO responded to that email to everyone individually asking them to sign an attached document by EOD the following day. The attached document was a contract that would reduce my salary by 20% with no other changes to other existing employment terms (e.g. my employment contract). The next day the COO and I had a call discussing the email and attached document. In that call I expressed concerns regarding the terms of the contract. When the COO expressed that they would bring it up w/ the CEO I said that I'd put my concerns in writing. In response to that the COO said you don't need to put it in writing. Obviously this is a red flag. At best the COO suggested to not document the concern. AT worst it was an implied instruction to not document the concern. Additionally, I was explicitly raising concerns over the terms of a proposed contract that would change my existing employment contract. Errata I'm employed in New York City. So New York City, New York State, and United States law would apply here. My employment is not unionized Question With respect to United States / New York State / New York City employment or contract law, is it strictly legal to suggest employees not to put contract concerns in writing? Answers/Responses to comments (Creating this ahead of time in case there is any more explanations or details required) Put it in writing (I'm answering this pre-emptively) Immediately after the call I did put my concerns in writing.
The statement "you don't need to put it in writing" is not an instruction, and should not be interpreted as on in lieu of other evidence (e.g. the follow-up question "you don't want to get fired, do you?"). It is, at best, a recognition that your concerns have already been noted (and at worst, a ham-handed threat). In the context of an at-will non-union position, it is legal for a boss to directly demand "take it or leave it, no back-talk allowed". The reduction in salary can't go below the statutory minimum, or otherwise circumvent any laws, but assuming that the new salary is per se legal, they can demand that you accept it and not argue. If this were a government position, there is a potential (but not guaranteed) First Amendment issue.
Can I legally put pressure on the company to get a compensation? (e.g. write an article explaining what they did) Writing an article about being fired doesn't have anything to do with the fact that writing that article is legal or not. Sure, you can write an article - or likely an opinion piece - about being fired for what you say are unjust reasons and hope it results in pressure on your old company. This happens all the time in the press; that's what Op-ed and opinion pieces - and also "objective" journalism - do every day. A big corporation isn't going to care about some bad PR from a disgruntled freelancer. Bad PR is not legal pressure. So consider the answer to your last question Can I be sued for warning of a potential crowdfunding scam? which is an outline of defamation law. If you're not very careful (and the publication's editor, if there is one and if they are not well-versed in defamation law), you will defame someone at the company (publish provably false facts) in your article and they (and/or the compnay) can take action against you. And self-publishing a piece has even greater risks of defamation, because it's likely you don't know the boundaries of defamation. Defamation is complex (especially in an international context) and turns on many details of the facts, how they were published, and more. But: how much money do you have to defend yourself against a libel suit? Another point to consider is this: even if you don't clearly libel someone at the company, the company can still take action against you. They can retaliate against bad PR with a lawsuit. You say they have lawyers and can afford it, and you're alone. Can you afford to defend yourself? Is it worth suing them (they're US-based), considering the cost or the legal action would not come cheap (I guess)? As a side note I am based in Europe (I avoid putting the country here, as a means to protect my privacy) That's entirely up to you. No one here will advise you about that. Only you can make that decision, or your lawyer can advise you on that. Talk to an attorney who might take on such an action, and one involving international jurisdictions (a US state and the unnamed European - possibly EU - country). Aside from potential libel, the other important aspect is to determine what legally can be done internationally in terms of defamation, both with any potential action you take and what actions the company can take against you. That will be determined by different laws and international agreements between the US (and possibly the state) and the unnamed (possibly EU) European country. The minor aspect of your dispute is your termination and the employment contract: The company engaging with the contractor has the right to terminate the agreement after several warnings have been issues.... However, no FORMAL warning has ever been issued. That's legally vague enough to allow the company to fire you at any time. (Update from comments: Virginia is a "Right to Work" state which means that the employer may fire the employee for any reason without cause unless the employee is being fired for being a member of a protected class, i.e.race, religion, sex, etc.) Again, international jurisdictions come into play concerning labor laws. Can you find a lawyer who will take on an international labor dispute?
Does it matter whether employer is company or individual? No. Must certain amount of notice be given? Yes - the notice period maybe specified in the contract but even if it isn't there are statutory notice periods that apply depending on length of employment etc. So if the following criteria are met they are legally classed as an employee they have worked for the employer for at least a month Then certain minimums apply: If they have worked for the employer for: 1 month to 2 years – statutory notice is 1 week 2 to 12 years – statutory notice is 1 week for each full year they have worked 12 years or more – statutory notice is 12 weeks A notice period in the contract (i.e. &quot;contractual notice&quot;) can exceed the statutory minimums but it can't reduce them. What other requirements are there that must be followed? This is pretty broad and I don't really want to reproduce everything here but the ACAS page on dismissals covers the basics. Can notice be dispensed if the task is of an urgent nature and employee must be replaced as a matter of urgency? Dismissal without notice is possible in cases of Gross Misconduct but that is about what the employee has done - nothing to do with the urgency of replacing them. However, if both parties agree a notice period can end early: The employee can ask if they can leave before their notice period ends. They should get agreement from their employer in writing. If the employee does not get agreement to leave early they could be in breach of contract. If the employee leaves early, the employer only has to pay them for the time that they’ve worked. If an employer wants them gone immediately they can do that if it's either in the contract but they still have to pay them for the notice period. They can also offer payment in lieu of notice if it's not in the contract but it's then up to the employee if they agree.
With respect to the first question, discussing an idea in a non-encrypted email is not a publication that forfeits the right to patent an idea, even though it is not 100% secure. In the same way, talking about an idea for a patent with your patent lawyer in a secluded booth of a coffee shop in person does not constitute publication of the idea for this purpose, even if someone is secretly spying on you at the time. Since I am at the moment employed by a company, even though the idea originates from myself, it seems that I should quit my job first not to have my current company have any claim over my idea. It is possible that the contract makes even ideas that you come up with yourself while employed by the company the property of the company. If so, you are legally in the wrong and the idea belongs to the company. But, proving the reality that you are stealing the idea from the company is harder if there is nothing in writing. An email discussing an idea while you are employed would have to be disclosed in litigation with your employer over whether the patent applied for belongs to you or to your employer under an employment agreement. If you didn't put it in an email, it wouldn't exist to turn over in litigation.
Financial institutions in the US are subject to regulations that restrict what sorts of things non-licensed employees can talk about with clients and advice they can give about structuring accounts and payments in ways that might avoid triggering money laundering alarms. I think this employee was being cautious about getting into a gray area and phrased the reason they couldn't talk about it poorly. The reason they were restricted from giving you an answer could be a legality, but not necessarily because they are giving you legal advice.
could they make a realistic claim that I had voluntarily terminated my contract before the year was over? The employer's act would forfeit its entitlement to reimbursement of bonus. The clause clearly indicates that the triggering event is termination, not the anticipatory notification thereof. Furthermore, the employer's act would be a breach of the [contract law] covenant of good faith and fair dealing. That would be in stark contrast with your compliance with, and/or kindness in, giving a two-week notice. The employer's termination of your employment seems improper in equity insofar as it was aware of your notice and thus took advantage thereof.
Yes, your clause specifically limits you to only working for COMPANY, even in your off time. Canada does not have a law protecting your right to work secondary jobs (moonlighting) in your off-duty hours. This means that any contract clause specifically limiting you to work with the employer only is valid, and breaking it is cause for justified dismissal. Based on this, do I need to ask for explicit permission to work on such projects? Yes, you will need to disclose any potential &quot;business or occupation whatsoever&quot;. You could play contract games by saying &quot;it's only a hobby&quot; or &quot;it doesn't make any money&quot;, but you will be opening yourself up to issues. The best thing to do is to disclose your project to your employer and get in writing their permission to work on it with specific terms that you will not be using company time or resources in any way. See: Patterson V. Bank of Nova Scotia
The fact that you're not a native speaker of English doesn't alter the legal situation. If you literally had no understanding of English but for some reason you signed a piece of paper, then you might argue that there was no agreement in the first place, but obviously you do speak some English. Most people don't actually understand what contracts mean (on both sides). Contracts are still enforced, based on what the contract says. The move-in data is proposed, not firm, and it even indicates what the charges are if your circumstances change and the dates have to change (whereas is their circumstances change, they wouldn't have a basis for charging extra). It also does say that there will be no refund if you change your mind. So the piece of paper says "No refund". The problem seems to be that there's an "agent" whose statements you relied on, who is ultimately responsible for this problem, and s/he implied that you could get a refund. It's not clear what kind of "agent" this is (is he working for you, or for the owners?). You'd have a somewhat different legal basis depending on which it is, but you could sue someone in either event, assuming that you could actually persuade the court that you were given false information which you relied on. The statement "they will refund your money if the guy doesn't move out by the 16th" is false; the statement "they may refund your money if the guy doesn't move out by the 16th" is true. If the latter was the statement that you relied on, then you knew (or should have known) that that isn't a promise, it's just a guess, and if you read the piece of paper you know that it's a promise with no basis. So I would say it comes down to establishing what promise was made to you. Arguing that the agent "made" you sign isn't going to get you anywhere (unless you can prove actual coersion).