Legal Question in Employment Law in California
Verbal contract for employment valid??
My wife was going to quit her job since it was part time when I wasn't attending school, but the store manager ripped up her termination notice and told her to stay and work one day a week only at least Saturday. This was last August and now, under new store managers in our home improvement warehouse, they say that any verbal contract she had with the last store manager is no longer valid, and null. Now they are using a computer scheduler and will not be flexible with her, because ultimately she was hired under the premise that she could work around my schedule, since we work at the same place. I being the full time breadwinner/student, and her being part time/home maker. We alternated working, I would work nights, she would work mornings since we have a 2 year old at home to watch. There are others in the company that can work together with the company as husband-wife, that have kids at home and one of them is home all the time, is that right that they can just basically screw my wife and I, but continue to work with the other couple?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Verbal contract for employment valid??
Verbal contracts are just as legal and binding as are written contracts. However, the problem with verbal contracts are the difficulty in proving the exact extent of the terms. While the prior manager may have been willing to honor his verbal agreement, there is no indication how long the arrangement was committed for. It is rare to find any employer obligated to maintain an employee's work schedule, pay or any other condition indefinitely. It is the inherent right of an employer to change employment terms, as conditions warrant. Unless your wife can prove that the original agreement was a committment for a fixed period of time, i.e., one year, it will not be enforceable. As to the favoritism, all I can say, without more information, is that such decisions cannot be based on illegal reasons, such as discriminatory, or reasons which are contrary to public policy.
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