L
lambfries
Guest
What is the name of your state? Wisconsin
Help Needed! Brief Background; my husband's position was terminated last week. He and the owner of the business started out together as coworkers 21 years ago for a separate Manufacturing company. When the company left seven years ago, a smaller "spin off" company was started (or basically given) to his co-worker by the parent company. My husband, a Manufacturing Engineer, chose to start his own small machine shop rather than continue with his co-worker. Through some crafty maneauvering with my husband's partners-to-be, this co-worker managed to put a halt to our new business venture. Since I was pregnant at the time, my husband chose to accept the job offer that had been offered to him by this coworker. He became his Senior Mfg. Engineer, and is VERY good at what he does.
Over the past seven years, this new business has been failing due to poor management by the owner and his management team. Frustrated, my husband has dusted off the old business plans, rewrote them, found some investers and was running the confidential business plan past some bank and city officials.
Absolutely all the planning, contacts etc. has been done OUTSIDE WORK HOURS, and with no "trade secrets" from the past company, or information other than what my husband has gained in his 21 years as an engineer.
His current employer somehow got ahold of his plan (so much for confidentiality disclaimers and honest city officials and bankers)and fired my husband last Saturday. The only thing they told him was that his services were no longer required at their place of business, and when asked why, he was told that the company was going in a different direction and that his position was being "eliminated".
He was an "at will" employee, and we know exactly what that means. Another coworker that my husband had shared his dream ideas with was also let go.
Since we have three children and I do not work, he filed for unemployment, which was granted. When asked on the phone how his job was terminated, he told them he was fired. When asked the "exact wording" by the questioner, they concluded that the term "eliminated position" was a lay-off rather than a firing. Today we received notice that they were questioning our eligibility due to the way in which he was terminated.
We acquired a copy of his work records from the employer, and on the sheet my husband signed, it was identified as a "involuntary termination"...even I know that is a firing.
To make matters even more confusing, we received a letter from the company's lawyer, stating that they felt we had company property that had not been returned to them.....something that we DO NOT have....no financial records, vender lists, customer lists, trade secrets etc.
My fear is that this coworker is concerned my husband's small business of 5-19 employees will ruin his 140 employee company. I can tell you that that has always been a major concern for my husband over the past seven years...we have discussed in detail the problems that might arise from employees applying for jobs with my husband (who they greatly respect) rather than staying with their current employer. We always felt his boss would try to fight "legally" to stop our business from starting and succeeding, so we purposely were going to target completely different clients....and try not to hire too many of the employees that would most likely flood us with applications from the company he works for now.
Questions:
Was the paper he signed at termination required to have a reason filled in where it asked for one?...should he have been told the real reason at the termination? The employees were told that he was starting up a business and that he had done some of the planning on company time (absolutely untrue and we are sure there is no evidence of it....since it didn't happen)
The legal papers from the lawyer...do you think they are standard lawyer stuff or the start of a lawsuit to throw our new business off track right now? (My husband was never a contract employee)
How do we respond back to the legal letter stating that we have absolutely NO company information, trade secrets, software, computer discs (my husband NEVER worked from home on anything work related). Should we do this through a lawyer?
PLEASE HELP.....THIS IS SO PATHETIC, BUT WE ARE JUST AN AVERAGE FAMILY THAT WAS CUT DOWN FROM A $50,000 A YEAR JOB TO $324.00 A WEEK, WHICH IS IN DISPUTE WITH THE UNEMPLOYMENT AGENCY!
WE MAY BE SOME OF THE LAST TRULY HONEST PEOPLE LEFT IN THIS WORLD, WHO ARE LEARNING THE HARD WAY THAT THE BUSINESS WORLD CAN BE REALLY NASTY.
Any help will be appreciated.
Help Needed! Brief Background; my husband's position was terminated last week. He and the owner of the business started out together as coworkers 21 years ago for a separate Manufacturing company. When the company left seven years ago, a smaller "spin off" company was started (or basically given) to his co-worker by the parent company. My husband, a Manufacturing Engineer, chose to start his own small machine shop rather than continue with his co-worker. Through some crafty maneauvering with my husband's partners-to-be, this co-worker managed to put a halt to our new business venture. Since I was pregnant at the time, my husband chose to accept the job offer that had been offered to him by this coworker. He became his Senior Mfg. Engineer, and is VERY good at what he does.
Over the past seven years, this new business has been failing due to poor management by the owner and his management team. Frustrated, my husband has dusted off the old business plans, rewrote them, found some investers and was running the confidential business plan past some bank and city officials.
Absolutely all the planning, contacts etc. has been done OUTSIDE WORK HOURS, and with no "trade secrets" from the past company, or information other than what my husband has gained in his 21 years as an engineer.
His current employer somehow got ahold of his plan (so much for confidentiality disclaimers and honest city officials and bankers)and fired my husband last Saturday. The only thing they told him was that his services were no longer required at their place of business, and when asked why, he was told that the company was going in a different direction and that his position was being "eliminated".
He was an "at will" employee, and we know exactly what that means. Another coworker that my husband had shared his dream ideas with was also let go.
Since we have three children and I do not work, he filed for unemployment, which was granted. When asked on the phone how his job was terminated, he told them he was fired. When asked the "exact wording" by the questioner, they concluded that the term "eliminated position" was a lay-off rather than a firing. Today we received notice that they were questioning our eligibility due to the way in which he was terminated.
We acquired a copy of his work records from the employer, and on the sheet my husband signed, it was identified as a "involuntary termination"...even I know that is a firing.
To make matters even more confusing, we received a letter from the company's lawyer, stating that they felt we had company property that had not been returned to them.....something that we DO NOT have....no financial records, vender lists, customer lists, trade secrets etc.
My fear is that this coworker is concerned my husband's small business of 5-19 employees will ruin his 140 employee company. I can tell you that that has always been a major concern for my husband over the past seven years...we have discussed in detail the problems that might arise from employees applying for jobs with my husband (who they greatly respect) rather than staying with their current employer. We always felt his boss would try to fight "legally" to stop our business from starting and succeeding, so we purposely were going to target completely different clients....and try not to hire too many of the employees that would most likely flood us with applications from the company he works for now.
Questions:
Was the paper he signed at termination required to have a reason filled in where it asked for one?...should he have been told the real reason at the termination? The employees were told that he was starting up a business and that he had done some of the planning on company time (absolutely untrue and we are sure there is no evidence of it....since it didn't happen)
The legal papers from the lawyer...do you think they are standard lawyer stuff or the start of a lawsuit to throw our new business off track right now? (My husband was never a contract employee)
How do we respond back to the legal letter stating that we have absolutely NO company information, trade secrets, software, computer discs (my husband NEVER worked from home on anything work related). Should we do this through a lawyer?
PLEASE HELP.....THIS IS SO PATHETIC, BUT WE ARE JUST AN AVERAGE FAMILY THAT WAS CUT DOWN FROM A $50,000 A YEAR JOB TO $324.00 A WEEK, WHICH IS IN DISPUTE WITH THE UNEMPLOYMENT AGENCY!
WE MAY BE SOME OF THE LAST TRULY HONEST PEOPLE LEFT IN THIS WORLD, WHO ARE LEARNING THE HARD WAY THAT THE BUSINESS WORLD CAN BE REALLY NASTY.
Any help will be appreciated.
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