Judge Morris E. Lasker of the United States District Court recently ruled that an anti-class-action provision in an employer’s mandatory arbitration program was unconscionable and therefore unenforceable. The arbitration program, with the offending provision, was announced to employees by email at work.
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Judge Thomas E. Connolly recently held that employers cannot have their cake and eat it too. In Ortega v. Wakefield Thermal Solutions, Inc., an employee returned to work late from a Caribbean vacation and was fired. The employee argued that the company’s employee handbook contained a progressive discipline policy, which was not followed in his case.
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Judge Ralph D. Gants of the superior court recently ruled that a company was subject to treble (triple) damages under 93A for filing a noncompete case against its former employee when that former employee was in the process of establishing a competing business and negotiating with a customer of the employer.
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In the case of Quaboag Transfer, Inc. v. Halpin, et al., Judge Agnes of the Worcester Superior Court ruled that a non-competition agreement and a non-solicitation agreement signed by two former employees of Quaboag Transfer, Inc. could not prevent them from maintaining friendships with employees of the company.
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