There is no statute (i.e., a law passed by the state legislature) in Texas protecting workers from being forced to commit illegal acts. So, prior to 1985, if your employer told you to rob the local bank and you refused, you could have been fired. But, now there is judge-made law in the form of
Most large employers have employee handbooks, those set of policies that explain things like vacation and sick leave, discipline, etc. Employers will often describe how they are “binding” and must be followed. But, legally, they are not binding, at all. They look thorough and professional and provide some comfort to employees in an uncertain world.
A non-compete clause for physicians requires adherence to certain criteria to be effective in Texas. Texas has a state law applicable to physician noncompete agreements.
If you are a person with an impairment, should you volunteer information about your impairment during an interview? When I worked at Disability Rights of Texas, we advised persons with disabilities to not discuss their impairment until necessary. An employer cannot lawfully ask about an impairment until a job offer
Why is it so hard to speak up at a toxic work culture? The Harvard Business Review described what occurred at Nike when some women informally surveyed other female employees and found a problem. As a result, top male executives are having and bias training has ben instituted. The real problem started long before those
An engineer worked for Texas Commission on Environmental Quality or 23 years. Shiyan Jiang was never in any trouble until in 2014, he was assigned a new boss, Kim Wilson. The new boss believed Mr. Jiang placed some papers in a permit folder that did not belong there. The plaintiff then filed a complaint alleging
When I was a young lawyer, I did child abuse cases. I represented children who had been abused or neglected. In one of those cases, I represented two children. The mostly absent father came to my office and made threats to almost everyone he encountered there. I was gone, so I missed the drama. One
Well, the Texas Supreme Court surprisd me. They rejected the City of San Antonio’s appeal regarding the fire fighter’s union contract. I mentioned in 2015 that the City seemed to be relying on an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. See my prior post here. The Supreme Court rejected the City’s appeal with no
In Myles v. UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, No. 17-00871-XR, 2018 US Dist. LEXIS 5080 (W.D. Tex.), we see an instance in which the state employee successfully sued the state employer for a violation of the Family Medical Leave Act. Normally, a state employer is immune to a suit based on the
In a recent decision, the Fifth Circuit addressed the turbulent area of non-solicitation agreements. Michelle Moffitt-Johnston used to work for GE Betz, Inc. GE Betz applied chemicals to fuel prior to export. Ms. Moffitt-Johnston signed a non-solicitation agreement with GE Betz during her employment, in which she agreed to not solicit Betz’ customers for up