Is it possible to resolve employee disputes before a lawsuit is filed here in San Diego or anywhere in California?  Employment litigation is no small thing. Each year in California, employee disputes turn into cases that result in lost employee hours, damages, legal costs, settlements and lost profits for companies across the state.  California is, by far, the most difficult state in which to be an employer.  Not handling employee issues or disputes properly can lead to wage and hour, unpaid overtime disputes and other forms of litigation. This means HIGH costs for any business, company or employer.

If done adequately, disputes can be resolved before further action has to be taken – potentially saving the employee from prolonged stress or unnecessary suffering and saving the employer loss of time and a substantial amount of money due to litigation, as well as legal ramifications from not addressing employee disputes or issues appropriately.

Recommendations

Be Timely: The faster you take action when you suspect an employee dispute is developing, the more options you have and the more likely we are to be able to resolve it quickly and cost-effectively. Dealing with a dispute or issue sooner is always better than later.

Be Effective: Address the actual issue. Don’t assume! Listen and make sure you properly grasp the complaint of the employee before you take action.  Paying attention to an employee’s actions and words can prevent and help resolve employee disputes before a lawsuit is filed, or a PAGA class action can be developed by plaintiff’s attorneys.

Be Intensive: Don’t let a dispute get buried in the grind of your day-to-day responsibilities. In the corporate environment, there are many things that demand time from your schedule. Things that keep the company moving forward, generate sale and ensure profitability. It’s easy to allow these demands to keep you from giving the attention and focus that an employee dispute can often require, but they are too important to allow to become buried.

Be Proactive: You should consider establishing clear channels for communicating problems, disputes or issues early on. Create avenues for your employees to raise issues with management or even appoint a person to focus on communicating with employees about their issue who is not their direct supervisor. Consider how to create opportunities for employees to safely and privately discuss issues in order to address problems before they grow to full-scale disputes.  The Watkins Firm can help you to resolve employee disputes before a lawsuit is filed.

Pro-Tip: “The most important piece of advice you would give an employer is the second that you become aware of any potential employee related dispute. Pick up the phone and call you because you could tell them that mole isn’t cancer. Talk about the most important piece of advice and why that matters to our clients. What it’s like to have a guy like you, they can pick up the phone and call you…

Call us, and you describe what’s going on with a certain troubled employee. And we can tell you like skin cancer, oh, that fact scenario doesn’t really fit something that I would go ahead and fight with them or we can say, oh, this one looks bad because of the things they’re complaining about or just the general facts. I would handle it this way. And so you can turn a $20,000 or $30,000 lawsuit situation into empowerment where you can stand your ground or maybe you make some concessions because you got some advice from your lawyer. You need to know when you got to worry about it and when you don’t.

All of a sudden they start posturing, and you’ll start receiving communications that sound like you’re getting set up. And you might be, and people in your staff will say, this person’s acting different. Well, if you called your lawyer, I would run a check to see if anything was filed already, because what I like to do is if I’m a plaintiff’s lawyer, I’m going to file it and not let you know until I’ve gathered evidence. But if you know that they filed and they’re hoping you won’t be gathering evidence and they’re trying to set you up, you can be gathering evidence yourself before they even serve you. And you could be fixing things, mitigating things before their case gets going and beat them to the punch, so to speak.”

Having the right advice and counsel ahead of time can save your and your company from the potential litigation as a result of not properly dealing with employee disputes. The Watkins Firm has more than 40 years of experience protecting, advising, representing and defending California employers.  You can put this extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution, including preemptive evaluation on your side of the equation.  This can help your company avoid costly court cases. We invite you to review our podcast Episode 39 – What Keeps Employers Up At Night as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.