Holding an employment contract that is only waiting for your signature is an exhilarating feeling, but you should not be too hasty in signing it. Once you sign, you will have rights that not all workers have. An employment contract, by nature, gives you job security as indicated in the contract provisions about the duration of the contract. Even if the economy tanks the day after you sign, you can be sure that your employer will not lay you off immediately, and if things get so bad that they must terminate your contract early, you can rest assured that they must follow the procedures for terminating the contract early. This will probably include a severance package that will soften the blow of losing your job.
An employment contract is not like a diploma, where you can tell what it means just by glancing at it, even if the text is in Latin. The legal boilerplate text conceals secrets that can work to your advantage, or conversely, which can work against you, if a dispute later arises between you and your employer. It is in your interest to read every sentence of your contract carefully and think about how it might apply in a variety of likely and unlikely situations. The Boulder employment contracts lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP can help you review your contract thoroughly if your mind is racing with excitement, too much for you to read carefully, or if you get bogged down in the legal language.
Understanding Your Employment Contract
The main purpose of an employment contract is to specify the rights and responsibilities of the employee and the employer. Therefore, at the beginning, it will contain enough identifying information about you and about your employer that, in the event of a dispute, no one can convincingly argue that the contract refers to someone else instead. After that, it will list your job duties, followed by your employer’s responsibilities toward you, including salary and benefits.
Most people stop reading after that party, but the next is where the most important things happen. Next, the contract tells you how long it is valid, which, in an employment contract, means how long you can be sure that you will have your job. It will also tell you the procedures for renewing the contract and for terminating it. Next come the provisions related to non-performance of contractual duties. The contract will tell you what each party must do in the event of a breach of contract. Finally, the dispute resolution clauses appear at the end. The contract will say whether you have the right to file a lawsuit in court about a dispute arising from the contract or whether you must resolve such disputes through arbitration.
What Rights Do You Have, Even if Your Employment Contract Does Not Say Anything About Them?
This might sound like a lot of legal formalities just to get a job, and it is. Most people in the workforce do not have employment contracts. Contracts are for the lucky few. Most workers are employed at will, which means that the employer can fire you at any time, and you can quit at any time.
Compared to employees with contracts, at-will employees are in a vulnerable position. Despite this, they still have rights. Employment laws apply to all employees. They apply to those who were hired at will, and they also apply to those who signed employment contracts, even if the contract does not specifically mention these laws or the rights that they guarantee. For example, employers must maintain workplace safety standards, no matter how much they pay you and how much job security you have. You also have the right to engage in legally protected activities, such as voting in elections for which you are eligible to vote, filing workers’ compensation claims about work injuries, and reporting your employer’s misconduct and non-compliance with legal regulations to the relevant regulatory bodies or to law enforcement. If your employer takes an adverse action against you, including but not limited to firing you, because you engaged in a protected activity, this counts as employer retaliation. Retaliation is against the law, regardless of whether you are employed at will or pursuant to a contract, and you have the right to sue your employer if it happens.
Another legal protection afforded to all employees, with or without a contract, is the protection against discrimination. Employment discrimination is when an employer takes adverse actions against an employee because of a protected characteristic of the employee, such as age, race, veteran status, sex, national origin, religion, or disability. Creating a hostile work environment by harassing the employee or intentionally causing him or her emotional distress counts as an adverse action. No matter how cushy your employment contract, your employer never has the right to subject you to racist or sexist behavior.
Beware of Trojan Horses in Your Employment Contract
Even though it might all sound like legalese, some provisions in employment contracts clearly benefit the employer but not the employee. For example, it is a red flag if your employment contract requires you to resolve contract disputes through arbitration instead of going to court. It is difficult to persuade a court to declare an arbitration agreement invalid, no matter how unfair it is. A better solution is, before you sign the employment contract, to ask your employer to amend the dispute resolution provision of your contract to say that the courts of Colorado have jurisdiction to rule on disputes arising from the contract.
Another red flag is non-compete clauses. Employment contracts sometimes make you promise not to establish a new business in your industry after you stop working for your employer, or even promise not to work for a competing business. If your contract has a non-compete clause, make sure it is not overly restrictive.
Contact HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, About Employment Contracts
The Boulder employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, can counsel you about your employment contract before you sign it. Contact the employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP in Boulder, Colorado, to set up a consultation.
