August 7th, 2008 
James PetersOver the past couple of months I have been dealing with a case against a major national bank on behalf of one of its former employees. The case involves his “discretionary” annual bonus, which most employers would say is just that-discretionary. However, the term discretionary is misleading because except in some very limited circumstances a party to a contract does not have absolute discretion.
This… Continue reading
Posted in Wages : Other 
Tags: Bonuses, California Employment Law, Cases, Employment Contracts, Wages and Hours 
1 Comment » January 23rd, 2008 James PetersWell, my post about the Los Angeles Times article on their new employee handbook seems to have set off (or at least contributed to) a firestorm throughout the web. Some of the reaction seems off-the-mark, though.
Comments: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
The overwhelming majority of mail I received is in agreement with my comments on the handbook, but I also received the most hate mail for any… Continue reading
January 19th, 2008 James PetersAn article in Thursday’s Los Angeles Times discusses their own parent company, Tribune Co.’s new employee handbook that was introduced by their CEO, Sam Zell, via a recent e-mail to employees.
This caught my eye because it is not every day that a company publicly releases or discusses their employee handbook. In fact, many handbooks actually state that its pages are the employer’s property and must be returned… Continue reading
January 14th, 2007 James PetersJay Shepherd over at the Gruntled Employees blawg has an interesting post from the employer’s attorney perspective about why he believes mandatory arbitration clauses are a stupid employer trick” and actually “not good for employers”.
I never understood why many employers force their employees to sign mandatory arbitration clauses, so this is refreshing to hear from a management-side employment law attorney… Continue reading
December 31st, 2006 James PetersMy employer terminated me today (December 31, 2006). I was supposed to receive a $10,000 performance bonus for 2006, but one of the terms of my bonus agreement says that I have to be employed on January 1, 2007 to get my bonus. The company is not doing very well and I think I was actually terminated so that they did not have to pay me… Continue reading
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