Is it legal for an employer to issue three different contracts within six months?

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Is it legal for an employer to issue three different contracts within six months?

Our new CEO and admin came up with
new contracts for the staff, the
contracts have no time limit. My
colleague was issued with a 1st
contract with an idefinate period,
then after a month was issued with
a two year contract, but this was
after the committee handling his
case found out that the admin had
falsely accused him of misconduct.
Now they want to issue him with a
3rd contract that ends in march
forcing him to sign or else. He
has not been found guilty of
anything but the CEO and admin are
set to have him removed from
employment. Our HR has no
knowledge of what is going on.
Please help.

Asked on March 21, 2016 under Employment Labor Law

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 8 years ago | Contributor

It depends on what the prior contracts said exactly: if it was an employment contract for a definite time, then the employer cannot make you sign a new contract until that one is up, unless you were terminated for good cause under the contract, in which case the employer can give you the option of signing a new contract rather than being terminated. But such termination must have been legal under the terms of the contract.
Similarly, if the contract was indefinite but provided that employment could only be terminated for certain reasons, then again, it should have to be the case that employment was validly terminated under the contract before a new one is required to be signed (as an alternative to termination).
It is difficult to discuss contracts in the abstract: contracts are enforced according to their specific, exact language. Your colleague should bring the contracts to an attorney to review in detail with him.


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