The Law at Work: What to say – and not to say – about an employee’s termination
Dan Eaton’s The Law at Work column in the San Diego Union-Tribune recently addressed challenges an employer faces in establishing that a former employee violated a nondisclosure agreement by making anonymous general comments about the employer’s plans on social media. In this column, Dan focuses on a recent case that demonstrates challenges an individual faces in suing his former employer over a post-termination announcement.
Just as an employer suing a former employee for post-termination disclosure of company secrets must prove that what was disclosed was legally a trade secret, an individual suing over post-termination public statements his former employer made were defamatory must show that the statements were at least: (1) about the individual and (2) a matter of fact, not of opinion.
Dan’s article cautions employers not to assume they have a license to say what they like about the circumstances of an employee’s departure as long as the statement is framed as opinion rather than fact. Instead, the employer must be careful about: (1) who is told anything other than that the employee is no longer with the company; (2) what information is conveyed; and (3) how the information is conveyed.
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