Re: "Prior Inventions" on employment contract

Dan:

AFAIK, if signing the contract is a condition of employment and signed prior
to starting the job, then it is probably valid and enforceable.

In many if not all states, your employer cannot force you to sign a contract
once employment has commenced.    This is considered "duress", and a
contract executed under duress is not valid and cannot be enforced.

Example:
Approximately four years ago, my company instituted a company policy that
allows us to drug-test our employees.  Upon the advice of our attorneys, we
did NOT ask our current staff at the time to sign this agreement.  However,
everyone hired on or after the effective date of the new policy are required
to sign the new employment agreement (which allows drug testing) as a
condition of employment.  The employees hired prior to the effective date of
this policy are not covered by it.

Steve Landess
Austin, Texas
(512) 423-0935

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan" <dbcemid@yahoo.com>
To: <midrange-l@midrange.com>
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 3:17 PM
Subject: RE: "Prior Inventions" on employment contract


> --- Chuck Lewis <clewis@iquest.net> wrote:
> > Good points Booth, and it wasn't clear from the initial post, but is
> > this job for a software house or just a business that uses computers
> > ?
>
> Well, to muck it up a little more, my employer is an I.T. contracting /
> placement firm.  As I alluded to in my previous post a few minutes ago,
> I'm contracting now, and scheduled to be hired by my client in a few
> months.  I am the only person from my current employer in this shop.
> The client is in a business that has no interest in software
> development beyond internal systems.
>
> On all that basis, it would seem that I'd have very little to worry
> about.  And I am not losing sleep on this.  But this kind of crap bugs
> me enough that I feel like making a ruckus, as long as I don't endanger
> my employment.  (As I mentioned in my previous post, I am NOT signing
> the contract as presented.)
>
> - Dan
>
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