Is this Tortious Interference? Current Employer contacting potential new employer.

[ThomasFouraker]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I work for a County Fire Dept (We will call it Sand County Fire Department). Many of our employees apply to a neighboring city ( We will call it Jax City Fire Dept) because the pay and benefits are much better. Our current Chief is retired from Jax City Fire Dept and has been the Chief of Sand County Fire Dept. for about 5 years. Sand City FD employee retention has suffered because of lack of pay and it is hard to replace employees that leave.

Is it legal for the current Sand City Fire Chief to contact Jax City FD (his former employer) and tell them do not hire more than one or two employees at a time, even though 20+ have applied and been on the hire list for months and in some cases years.

This has been addressed towards Sand City FD employees by Jax City Recruiting office at prospective employee testing to be aware of the circumstances. When asked if they were accommodating his request, it was stated "well, he did use to work here".

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I work for a County Fire Dept (We will call it Sand County Fire Department). Many of our employees apply to a neighboring city ( We will call it Jax City Fire Dept) because the pay and benefits are much better. Our current Chief is retired from Jax City Fire Dept and has been the Chief of Sand County Fire Dept. for about 5 years. Sand City FD employee retention has suffered because of lack of pay and it is hard to replace employees that leave.

Is it legal for the current Sand City Fire Chief to contact Jax City FD (his former employer) and tell them do not hire more than one or two employees at a time, even though 20+ have applied and been on the hire list for months and in some cases years.

This has been addressed towards Sand City FD employees by Jax City Recruiting office at prospective employee testing to be aware of the circumstances. When asked if they were accommodating his request, it was stated "well, he did use to work here".

Yes, perfectly legal for him to request it. It's also perfectly legal for Jax City to ignore the request.

 

[ThomasFouraker]

Yes, perfectly legal for him to request it. It's also perfectly legal for Jax City to ignore the request.

Thanks for your quick response. Is it ILLEGAL for Jax City to honor the request? Or would that be discriminating against a prospective employee based on their current employer?

While the legality of it may be within acceptable parameters, it is very disheartening to be more qualified than others and to be passed up because the experience you have is from an employer who has ties to your potential future employers. Almost as if the experience puts you at a.....disadvantage.

 

[Ohiogal]

Thanks for your quick response. Is it ILLEGAL for Jax City to honor the request? Or would that be discriminating against a prospective employee based on their current employer?

While the legality of it may be within acceptable parameters, it is very disheartening to be more qualified than others and to be passed up because the experience you have is from an employer who has ties to your potential future employers. Almost as if the experience puts you at a.....disadvantage.

It would be discrimination but not ILLEGAL discrimination.

 

[LdiJ]

Thanks for your quick response. Is it ILLEGAL for Jax City to honor the request? Or would that be discriminating against a prospective employee based on their current employer?

While the legality of it may be within acceptable parameters, it is very disheartening to be more qualified than others and to be passed up because the experience you have is from an employer who has ties to your potential future employers. Almost as if the experience puts you at a.....disadvantage.

It is discrimination but it does not appear to be illegal discrimination because it does not appear to be based on a protected characteristic. Its not based on ethnicity, age, gender or anything else like that. However, it might be against union rules or against the city code.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I work for a County Fire Dept (We will call it Sand County Fire Department). Many of our employees apply to a neighboring city ( We will call it Jax City Fire Dept) because the pay and benefits are much better. Our current Chief is retired from Jax City Fire Dept and has been the Chief of Sand County Fire Dept. for about 5 years. Sand City FD employee retention has suffered because of lack of pay and it is hard to replace employees that leave.

Is it legal for the current Sand City Fire Chief to contact Jax City FD (his former employer) and tell them do not hire more than one or two employees at a time, even though 20+ have applied and been on the hire list for months and in some cases years.

This has been addressed towards Sand City FD employees by Jax City Recruiting office at prospective employee testing to be aware of the circumstances. When asked if they were accommodating his request, it was stated "well, he did use to work here".

The elements of tortious interference with a contractual relationship are that there exists a valid contract, a party knows of the contract and intentionally procures breach of that contract, with resulting damages to complaining party.

The elements of tortious interference with a business relationship are that there exists a business relationship where complaining party has legal rights, and another intentionally and without justification interferes with this relationship, resulting in damages to the complaining party.

Jax City Fire Department could be interfering with the contractual relationships or business relationships that Sand City Fire Department employees have with Sand City, IF Jax is approaching Sand City Fire Department employees and offering them greater pay and benefits for the sole purpose of enticing these employees to break their contracts with Sand City or leave Sand City's employ.

But Jax is not interfering with contractual relationships or business relationships by hiring fire department employees who apply for a job on their own (to take advantage of higher pay and benefits offered all employees), as long as there is nothing in the Sand City FD contracts that prohibit the employees from seeking employment elsewhere (which I would think unlikely).

And it is legal for the current Sand City Fire Chief to contact Jax City Fire Department and request that Jax does not hire his fire department employees, as long as the Fire Chief does not interfere with the hiring of the employees by defaming or lying about his workers to discourage hiring by Jax.

In other words, as long as Sand City employees are not contractually bound by the terms of their contracts to remain with Sand City and are free to apply elsewhere, and as long as Jax is not encouraging Sand City employees to break contracts or their business relationships with Sand City to come to Jax, and as long as the Chief is not telling lies about his employees to prevent hiring by Jax, and as long as Jax is free to hire Sand City employees despite the request made by the Chief, there appears to be nothing illegal going on.

Sand City employees remain free to apply for jobs with Jax and Jax is free to limit (or increase) their hiring of Sand City employees as they see fit, despite the Chief's request.