Employment Agreements
I have asked all of my employees to sign an employment agreement. The employment agreement contains things that some employees do not agree with. Do they have to sign it?
It depends.
If the person in disagreement is a prospective employee who has not yet started their employment and the signing of the agreement is a condition of employment, you can require that they sign the agreement in its existing form to begin employment.
If you already employ this person, and did not ask them to sign the employment agreement at the start of their employment, you cannot make them to sign the agreement. If the employee does agree to sign, in order for the agreement to be binding on them, you, as an employer, must provide the employee with what lawyers call ‘new consideration.’ Consideration is something of value that you give the employee in exchange for them agreeing to sign the agreement.
Can I fire an employee if they don't sign an employment agreement?
Some employers inform their employees that they will be fired if they don’t sign the agreement. If an employee refuses to sign, you have a couple of options: you could fire your employee without cause and pay them severance in lieu of notice OR you could give your employee notice that their employment terms will change (consistent with the new agreement) after a period of time equal to the notice period that you would have had to give your employee in order to fire them without cause.
