jsbjrv1421
New member
What is the name of your state? Utah
I was terminated for ‘just cause’ in August 2019. I was with a Utah tech company as a sales leader for over 14 years. I was responsible for over 250 sales reps that I personally recruited to the company. I had zero compliance issues. Even the executives/owners kids worked for me.
I was terminated a week after I notified the VP of Law and Compliance at my former company that the companies inside sales reps should not be conducting phone sales in a certain state without a business license. I also explained this states statutes to the Vp of Law and compliance since he was somewhat new in the tech business and I had experience with the licensing in this state. It’s a very tough state to get licensed in and even more of a pain to have to license every individual in a massive call center to conduct business in this southern state from Utah.
I have an email exchange where the government official for this southern state (the Licensing Director) confirms that a license is needed for each individual rep conducting phone sales.
However, the companies position on my termination for ‘just cause’ was due to my accessing company data. They state I should not have had access to it, even though a company data analyst instructed me how. The data I used was something that I had been approved to do with my sales force for over two years by some of the executives of the company, in closing sales leads that our inside sales department couldn’t ‘close.’ Interestingly enough, I was terminated in regards to our inside sales department. I believe when I told the VP of law about the inside sales dept selling in a certain state unlicensed that they quickly tried covering up the situation by getting rid of me. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you will, but I was not given a warning about accessing something I’d been accessing for a long time, and all of a sudden called into the office to be fired.
My employment agreement states “ Termination “For Cause” shall include, but is not limited to, (i) commission of a crime involving moral turpitude, theft, fraud or deceit, (ii) conduct that brings the company, or any of its affiliates, into public disgrace or disrepute, including, but not limited to, being arrested for or charged with a crime, (iii) Representative’s death, (iv) violation or breach of any provision of this Agreement, (v) violation of company rules, regulations, handbooks, manuals, policies, practices and procedures, (vi) providing any false or misleading information to company, or any of company affiliates, or directing, instructing or encouraging any one to provide false or misleading information to company, or any of company affiliates (including, but not limited to, directing, instructing or encouraging a person to provide false or misleading information on any survey), (vii) failure to perform any of Representative’s obligations under this Agreement, or (viii) failure or inability to obtain any necessary or required license(s) or permit(s).
I accessed with the data site with my own login info, a program called Tableau. It’s thru Tableau that I could see that our inside sales department was selling w/o a license.
I have documentation that each file in Tableau is noted as ‘Public’ or ‘Private’. Only the ‘Public’ files were accessed. Regardless, what I was doing I had been doing with top level approval for two years and then a week after I blow report to legal this companies noncompliance they terminate me for accessing and utilizing this data for strictly company purposes.
I was supposed to be paid all my commission earnings up to the point of my termination. The employee agreement states that and the law in Utah states that. The company drafted a settlement and release of claims agreement in December and then another one revised in February 2020 to pay me. There’s no expiration date in the document. I signed it in August 2020 after the CEO and I went to lunch where he encouraged me to sign it. I sent it to the chief legal officer of my former company. He states ‘the company is not authorized to sign it’ in an email back to me. They still haven’t paid me on my wages. I’m owed $511,000. This amount is documented with our payroll department and they’ve got an email from the legal department stating to not pay me. The CEO and I are good friends and I still ‘consult’ behind the scenes with the hope I’d be back by now but it’s not looking that way at the moment due to company politics.
In march 2020 I was approved to work for a sister company of my former tech firm by ‘the board’. I onboarded with them. In August 2020, ‘the board’ called the CEO and CRO of this sister company and asked them to terminate their agreement with me. It’s my belief the CLO and VP of Law and compliance complained to ‘the board’ about their approving of me to work for this sister company. It’s a bit messed up if you ask me. I hadn’t even gotten started with the new opportunity.
What legal counsel would you give me? Since employees are protected by reporting a ‘common law public issue’ am I still within my statute of limitations? What are my options?
Here’s what I can prove with much documentation and evidence (hundreds of pages of evidence)-
Also, yes, I know, it sounds like a weird company.. it is, but it's where I want to be..
I was terminated for ‘just cause’ in August 2019. I was with a Utah tech company as a sales leader for over 14 years. I was responsible for over 250 sales reps that I personally recruited to the company. I had zero compliance issues. Even the executives/owners kids worked for me.
I was terminated a week after I notified the VP of Law and Compliance at my former company that the companies inside sales reps should not be conducting phone sales in a certain state without a business license. I also explained this states statutes to the Vp of Law and compliance since he was somewhat new in the tech business and I had experience with the licensing in this state. It’s a very tough state to get licensed in and even more of a pain to have to license every individual in a massive call center to conduct business in this southern state from Utah.
I have an email exchange where the government official for this southern state (the Licensing Director) confirms that a license is needed for each individual rep conducting phone sales.
However, the companies position on my termination for ‘just cause’ was due to my accessing company data. They state I should not have had access to it, even though a company data analyst instructed me how. The data I used was something that I had been approved to do with my sales force for over two years by some of the executives of the company, in closing sales leads that our inside sales department couldn’t ‘close.’ Interestingly enough, I was terminated in regards to our inside sales department. I believe when I told the VP of law about the inside sales dept selling in a certain state unlicensed that they quickly tried covering up the situation by getting rid of me. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you will, but I was not given a warning about accessing something I’d been accessing for a long time, and all of a sudden called into the office to be fired.
My employment agreement states “ Termination “For Cause” shall include, but is not limited to, (i) commission of a crime involving moral turpitude, theft, fraud or deceit, (ii) conduct that brings the company, or any of its affiliates, into public disgrace or disrepute, including, but not limited to, being arrested for or charged with a crime, (iii) Representative’s death, (iv) violation or breach of any provision of this Agreement, (v) violation of company rules, regulations, handbooks, manuals, policies, practices and procedures, (vi) providing any false or misleading information to company, or any of company affiliates, or directing, instructing or encouraging any one to provide false or misleading information to company, or any of company affiliates (including, but not limited to, directing, instructing or encouraging a person to provide false or misleading information on any survey), (vii) failure to perform any of Representative’s obligations under this Agreement, or (viii) failure or inability to obtain any necessary or required license(s) or permit(s).
I accessed with the data site with my own login info, a program called Tableau. It’s thru Tableau that I could see that our inside sales department was selling w/o a license.
I have documentation that each file in Tableau is noted as ‘Public’ or ‘Private’. Only the ‘Public’ files were accessed. Regardless, what I was doing I had been doing with top level approval for two years and then a week after I blow report to legal this companies noncompliance they terminate me for accessing and utilizing this data for strictly company purposes.
I was supposed to be paid all my commission earnings up to the point of my termination. The employee agreement states that and the law in Utah states that. The company drafted a settlement and release of claims agreement in December and then another one revised in February 2020 to pay me. There’s no expiration date in the document. I signed it in August 2020 after the CEO and I went to lunch where he encouraged me to sign it. I sent it to the chief legal officer of my former company. He states ‘the company is not authorized to sign it’ in an email back to me. They still haven’t paid me on my wages. I’m owed $511,000. This amount is documented with our payroll department and they’ve got an email from the legal department stating to not pay me. The CEO and I are good friends and I still ‘consult’ behind the scenes with the hope I’d be back by now but it’s not looking that way at the moment due to company politics.
In march 2020 I was approved to work for a sister company of my former tech firm by ‘the board’. I onboarded with them. In August 2020, ‘the board’ called the CEO and CRO of this sister company and asked them to terminate their agreement with me. It’s my belief the CLO and VP of Law and compliance complained to ‘the board’ about their approving of me to work for this sister company. It’s a bit messed up if you ask me. I hadn’t even gotten started with the new opportunity.
What legal counsel would you give me? Since employees are protected by reporting a ‘common law public issue’ am I still within my statute of limitations? What are my options?
Here’s what I can prove with much documentation and evidence (hundreds of pages of evidence)-
- the companies inside sales department reps sold and continue to sell in a state they should be licensed in
- I have an email from the head gov’t official for licensing stating that they should each have a license
- I have hundreds of documents showing the data i’d been utilizing for only company purposes i had been accessing for over two years with upper level management approvals
- payroll has communicated to me thru email how much i am owed. they’ve stated in an email that legal has said to not pay me.
- I signed the settlement agreement and release of claims, the CLO responds they’re not paying it
Also, yes, I know, it sounds like a weird company.. it is, but it's where I want to be..
