Employer threatening to sue employee for not fullfilling responsibilities
My duaghter is a dental hygienist who recently changed jobs and gave 2 wks. notice. although she stated that she would be available to work several weekends in the upcoming months, her new employment would not enable her to do this. Her former employer is threatening to sue for breech of contract to work. She was an employee, not a contractor. Can the dental office sue her for loss of income due to her not being abel to work the weekends shoe originally inteded to work. Her curreent employer states that she may be fired is she works the remaining weekends for the other dental office.
There is hard feeling between the two dental offices and she is in the middle.
What should she do?
Answers (1)
Unless your daughter entered into a agreement with the former employer to work for a specific period of time, she was probably an employee at will. As an employee at-will, she was free to quit at any time. In that event, neither she nor her former employer could sue the other for breach of contract.
I suggest that your daughter ask her former employer to provide her with any contract by which it claims she agreed to work for a specific period of time. If one does not exist, then the law presumes that she is an employee at will and she would have a valid defense to a breach of contract claim.
posted by Neil Klingshirn | Mar 26, 2009 10:24 AM [EST]
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