Employment Law

Attorney Goar has represented employees in connection with various employment disputes for over two decades. “Employment law” encompasses a wide variety of claims pertaining to employment, and involves many different state and federal laws and regulations. Some disputes involve the conditions of someone’s employment for a job they wish to keep; others involve a claim for wrongfully withheld compensation; still others pertain to the circumstances of an employee’s termination.

Wrongful Termination

Many jobs provide little security in terms of guaranteed continued employment. (The exception is when the job terms are controlled by a contract or other agreement which may provide various safeguards before someone can be fired.) Many jobs are subject to “at will” employment, which means that the employee can be fired for any reason, or even no reason. The major exception to this rule in Massachusetts is that an employer may not fire (or make other adverse employment decisions against) an employee when that act is motivated by discrimination. Sometimes such discrimination is overt, as in the case of sexual harassment, but often it must be proven by indirect means, such as showing that the employer’s stated reason for terminating the employee is a “pretext” (i.e., not the real reason); or by using statistics to show a pattern of discrimination against a certain group (as is often the case with age discrimination.) If you have been fired, demoted or otherwise been harmed by an employment decision, you should contact Attorney Goar without delay in order to discuss your rights. You must file any claim of discrimination with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination within 300 days of the date of the discriminatory action; and you must file any claim of discrimination in court within three years of the date of the discriminatory action. Therefore, do not delay in contacting an employment attorney to discuss your claim.

Employment Wages

Another important category of employment claims is payment of wages and other forms of earned compensation. In Massachusetts, many employees are protected by the Massachusetts Wage Act, which requires wages and salary to be paid within six days of the end of the prior pay period. “Wages” also means commissions and other forms of compensation that are due and payable (recently, I successfully represented an employee whose employer failed to pay her a bonus that she was owed.) An employer who fails to pay wages that are owed is liable for three times the wages owed, as well as your reasonable costs and attorney’s fees. If you are owed wages or other forms of compensation by your employer, call Attorney Goar to make sure that your rights, and money you have earned, are protected.

Severance Agreements

When employees are fired, it is very common for their employers to ask them to sign a severance agreement. Usually the “consideration” for this agreement is the payment of money, sometimes called a “severance payment.” The severance agreement will require you to release any claims you might have against your employer for anything that happened during the employment relationship. Therefore, it is highly advisable to discuss the agreement with an attorney before signing it. Attorney Goar has successfully negotiated with employers on many occasions in order to increase the size of the severance payment, or to otherwise change the terms of the severance agreement to protect the client’s interests. For example, a client’s primary concern may not be the severance payment but obtaining a favorable reference from the employer, or avoiding disclosure of negative information pertaining to the circumstances of the termination. Employers are often willing to make such reasonable changes to severance agreements in order to part ways amicably with the employee. A critical component of success in such negotiations is promptly notifying the employer of your concerns soon after you are presented with the agreement. Therefore, if you have been presented with a severance agreement by your employer, contact Attorney Goar without delay so that he can help you make sure the terms of the agreement protect your interests.