Detroit Employment Law Blog

You're so excited to receive a job offer that you throw your employee contract to the side and begin to celebrate. While it's okay to be happy for yourself, don't do anything else until you review your contract.

Here are some questions to answer as you review your employee contract:

• Does it match what you discussed when interviewing and negotiating the terms of your employment? You thought you agreed to terms with the company, just to find that your employee contract contradicts your verbal agreement. You'll want to clear this up before putting pen to paper.
• What does it say about compensation? You'll naturally turn your attention to the compensation portion of your contract, as you want to ensure that it matches what you agreed upon. In addition to the salary or hourly rate, make note of other forms of compensation, such as bonuses, commission payments and stock options.
• Is there a noncompete? Some employee contracts state that you can't work for a company in the same industry for a predetermined period of time following your termination or submitting your notice. This may not be something you're comfortable with, so you have the opportunity to negotiate it out.
• Will you receive severance pay if you're terminated? It may not be a deal breaker, but it's important to know if your termination will result in severance pay. And if so, how it's calculated and paid.

It is a well-known fact that American women have struggled against workplace discrimination for countless decades. It's probably impossible to identify the first female worker who spoke out against such discrimination. Workplace discrimination against women is still very much a problem here in Michigan and across the country, but male workers also experience discrimination.

Male workplace discrimination looks much like it does for women workers. For example, men working in women-dominated industries may receive less pay than their female counterparts do.

Those who decide to become whistleblowers in Michigan are brave people who deserve all of the protections the law provides. After all, it is not easy to call out corruption as it may take a toll on the whistleblower and his or her family. To make an already difficult situation even worse, these courageous individuals must often face retaliation for their efforts to expose wrongdoing.

Federal and state laws strive to protect whistleblowers from adverse actions. One way to help put an end to such retaliation involves filing a complaint. For example, it is illegal for your employer to fire you because you blew the whistle on company misconduct. If you do lose your job and you believe it is because of blowing the whistle, you can file a complaint against the employer.

Depending on your profession, you may tinker with a variety of ideas. In fact, you may even have the responsibility of creating new products for your company.

With this in mind, it's not out of the question for your employment contract to include an ownership of inventions provision. However, before you sign a contract with this provision, you should better understand what it entails and how it affects your legal rights