There are always possibilities of being sued when you are a business. Big or small, the chances are still present. When running a Public Relations or Management firms, there are different topics to think about. Three in particular are negligence, equality among employees, and making sure employees are paid for all if their time worked. A lawsuit was filed a few years ago by Sir Elton John against Andrew Haydon and City accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Haydon is Elton’s ex-lover and former managing director for John Reid Enterprises (JREL), which once handled all of Elton’s management affairs. The City accountants looked after his business affairs. Sir Elton John stated that he was charged overseas touring expenses all which should have been covered by the management company. (Mail Online, 2011) When running a management firm, the firm must make sure the contract clearly states who is responsible, or not responsible, for any fees.
In the case of the French public relations company, Publicis Groupe SA, the are being sued on a matter of numbers. The suit, which is for $100 million, former employees say that 70% of the firm’s staff are women but they only hold 15% of leadership positions within the company. (Minkmedia, 2011) So if you have a company, for instance, that you feel may be catered more toward men, you can’t deny a woman a higher position because you feel a man is a better pick for the job. All companies need to hire equally among their employees and not be biased towards anybody or any group of people.
When a business has an intern, the business does not need to pay them for their work. But in any other case, any time an employee of a business works, they must be financially compensated for their time. Out in California, a former account coordinator for Rogers & Cowan, is seeking money from unpaid hours worked. The employee of the public relations firm is stating the company made their employees “volunteer” to work and refused to pay them any overtime. (Hodges, 2011) A business needs to keep very good records of when, where, and how often their employees work.
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(Info. resources: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-37622/Sir-Elton-loses-High-Court-case.html, http://www.texasovertimeattorney.com/blog/california-lawsuit-claims-pr-firm-required-employees-to-work-for-free.cfm, & http://www.minkmedia.com/69084277/french_public_relations_agency_faces_gender_bias_lawsuit.php)
(Photos: http://www.realestatedubaiblog.com/legal-mistakes-dubai-real-estate-investors-must-avoid/ & http://whatisthetrend.net/figuring-out-the-legal-questions-20116985.html)
