Legal Question in Employment Law in California
I left a high paying VP job in Ohio to accept a SVP position with a competitor in California. The job description stated my direct reports were 2 VPs. 2 days before I started, and after leaving my Ohio job, I was given a different job description and a dozen direct reports. The HR department said the original job description was replaced months earlier and sent me the new one. The CEO again changed my direct reports on day one of my employment. Now, a year later, I have been laid off.
Do I have a case under California labor law 970?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Sorry, but unless you have a written employment contract, or unless this violates written company policies, guaranteeing you a specified term of employment, you are 'at will' and can be terminated anytime. Had this happened only days after arriving, you might have had a fraud claim, but not after a year.
try to negotiate a severance package and good reference letter from someone in your mgmt. File for unemployment.
It doesn't sound like it. First off they had to make a "knowing" misrepresentation. In other words they had to intentionally lie to you. Second, they had to have lied about the "kind, character or existence" of the work." That's pretty broad. If all they changed was who reports to you, without materially changing the kind and character of the work you did, you have no case. Section 970 would apply if they, for example, hired you to be a SVP of North American Sales, and when you arrived made you a district sales manager for Fresno and Tulare Counties.
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