Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Change in job duties by employer

I accepted a payroll and general accountant position six months ago and was given a verbal job description before I accepted and left my past employer. Since day one the position they described has never fit into what I originally accepted mostly because of the HR department dumping their workload on me. After talking to my boss on numerous occasions, he has told after six months that they have decided to make my position of full time payroll and HR position. This position is expected to take up 75% of my time. I was told this decision has come from the corporate level. Is it legal to change my entire job and not utilize the skills I was hired to do? What Kind of recourse do I have?


Asked on 12/09/03, 12:02 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Kirschbaum Law Offices of Michael R. Kirschbaum

Re: Change in job duties by employer

Since almost all private employment is "at-will", employers have the right to change job duties and descriptions as they see fit.

In some limited circumstances a claim for "fraudulent inducement" may be made, but these are very difficult cases to prove, as several elements must be met to be successful.

If you wish to pursue this further, you should meet with an experienced employment law attorney to evaluate the facts of your case to determine if a claim for fraud can be made and, if so, whether filing such a claim makes sense.

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Answered on 12/10/03, 11:51 am


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