Legal Question in Employment Law in California
Last year I was working for a company in the UK. At the time, this company announced a massive re-organization and basically gave me two options: (i) take a redundancy (or severance) package of approximately �30k ($45k) after tax and leave the company, or (ii) accept a 50% salary increase and relocate to California. The company also offered to pay all my relocation expenses, visa expenses and offered free temporary accommodation in California for 3 months. I accepted option (ii) as I was told by my boss that this would be a good career move for me.. and I obviously agreed with him.
So I relocated from the UK to California about one month ago. However, it was just announced internally that the company is going through very difficult times and will implement severe cost cutting measures involving massive layoffs. I am expecting more details in the next few days, but I am pretty sure that I will be told that I do not have a job anymore (as well as most of my team).
My question is: do I have a case here? To me it doesn't make any sense at all that the company went through everything I described above (salary increase, paying a lot of expenses, etc) to move me to California, to then announce that I would loose my job right after I relocated. I suspect that in the next few days all details will be revealed, but it would be REALLY useful if someone could share his/her comments as I would like to enter a potential negotiation with my employer already knowing what cards I have on my hand (if any). I never thought I would be going through this and it is killing me...
Thank you so much for your support.
3 Answers from Attorneys
California Labor Code section 970 generally makes it unlawful to make "knowingly false representations" to induce someone to relocate to, from, or within California.
The potential problem I see with your situation is that the option (ii) you described above does not seem to have been a "knowingly false representation." It does not appear that your employer gave you any assurance that the employment would last for a certain period of time. Moreover, even if your employer did tell you the employment would last a long time, unless you can show your employer knew this statement was false when the company made it, you likely cannot sustain a lawsuit.
You should probably discuss this with an employment law attorney in your area for a full analysis of your situation.
I agree with the previous answer and would add that there may be a jurisdictional bar to you taking legal action. Without researching the point, which is beyond the scope of a free question, I can see the employer making an argument that California law does not apply when none of the relevant acts occurred in California. You were in the UK, your employer was in the UK, e representations and offers we're made to you and accepted by you in the UK. A case can certainly be made that UK law applies not CA.
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