How does one deal with unfair business practices?

[Saint Cad]

First of all, the school district (Colorado if it matters) I work for has broken any pretense of a teacher's union before I got here so I don't think I can go to NLRB. When I say unfair practices there are two big ones:

They have made the teachers work outside their contract hours unpaid including mandatory work sessions and mandatory training unpaid. The response I received from the District was, "You do what it takes if you want this job." I don't know what sort of documentation people have (I don't have any explicitly stating "This is mandatory") and we don't get to see our contract so I don't know if they snuck in that we are salary and therefore on-call 24/7 so to speak. Because of this, I don't know that I'm willing to spend $ on a lawyer even though in my (probably innaccurate) layman's opinion we have a great class-action suit.

Evaluations are rigged to lay off teachers. Colorado is an at-will state and for teachers, if you have less than 3 years with a district, all you are guarantied is a year contract. But teachers are being given unsatisfactory evaluations to justify their non-renewal. Some off these are because they are outspoken, but all first year teachers like me are being laid-off due to the economy and they could legally not renew me even if I scored the best possible score. When I say rigged, my evaluation looks like this (the categories are nomative but I used numbers to better illustrate): 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2 which averages to an evaluation of 1(?) and my overall evaluation is a 0(?!) so I am recommended for non-renewal for unsatisfactory work performance. Apparently policy as indicated on my evaluation (again no one has seen the official documents) would indicate that an overall of 1 cannot ne non-renewed. But they did not discriminate and as a first year teacher all they need to do is notify me before June 1st that I'm not coming back so it's not an unlawful terminiation but it may or may not affect if I'm eligible for unemployment.

So what should I do. Present both of these to an employment law attorney and see if he's willing to take on a class-action suit without a retainer or is there a state or federal agency to report to?

[DivineComedienne]

I'm confused. What do you mean, you don't get to see your contract? It's a public record. Not sure what it is in CO, but in NJ it's called the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), and you just fill out a form and submit it to the school; they are required to turn over the documents. Actually, I work for government here in NJ, and all the contracts (union, professionals, services, etc.) are all available on our website. Are you talking about a collective bargaining agreement between the school and the union (covering all union members), or your individual contract with the school? Is there or is there not a union? Can you please clarify for us non-Colorado folks?

IANAL, but if you're an at-will employee, it seems reasonable for management (school district) to give you a contract for the school year and then decide what they can afford for the following year. If my boss decides he can't afford all the employees here and decides to lay some off, that's management's right. It's unfortunate that the teachers with the least seniority are usually the first to go (the unions to tend to eat their young), but that's par for the course. If you aren't happy with the way this particular district is handling things, why not change to another district?

[Really Not All That Bright]

This is not legal advice. I am not your lawyer (or a lawyer at all, for that matter).
So what should I do. Present both of these to an employment law attorney and see if he's willing to take on a class-action suit without a retainer or is there a state or federal agency to report to?
Employment and labor law plaintiffs' attorneys always work on contingency.

You probably don't want to bother with a class action suit. They take years longer because you first have to litigate for years over whether the class should be certified in the first place.

If you have a written employment contract and you've never seen it, you're not a party to it. You say there's no union, so your contract isn't collectively bargained. I think what you mean is that there isn't a written contract.

You could try calling the EEOC and see what they say about the unpaid overtime thing, but I'm willing to believe teachers are always considered exempt employees.

[Colibri]

Since the OP is looking for legal advice, this is better suited for IMHO than GQ.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[Rand Rover]

Evaluations are rigged to lay off teachers. Colorado is an at-will state and for teachers, if you have less than 3 years with a district, all you are guarantied is a year contract. But teachers are being given unsatisfactory evaluations to justify their non-renewal. Some off these are because they are outspoken, but all first year teachers like me are being laid-off due to the economy and they could legally not renew me even if I scored the best possible score. When I say rigged, my evaluation looks like this (the categories are nomative but I used numbers to better illustrate): 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2 which averages to an evaluation of 1(?) and my overall evaluation is a 0(?!) so I am recommended for non-renewal for unsatisfactory work performance. Apparently policy as indicated on my evaluation (again no one has seen the official documents) would indicate that an overall of 1 cannot ne non-renewed. But they did not discriminate and as a first year teacher all they need to do is notify me before June 1st that I'm not coming back so it's not an unlawful terminiation but it may or may not affect if I'm eligible for unemployment.

I'm afraid I don't understand your claim here. It's an at-will state and you have a one-year contract. So after that year, the district can just say "Knock knock, you're fired" for no reason whatsoever. So why would they want to or need to "rig" your evaluation?

[redtail23]

I'm afraid I don't understand your claim here. It's an at-will state and you have a one-year contract. So after that year, the district can just say "Knock knock, you're fired" for no reason whatsoever. So why would they want to or need to "rig" your evaluation?Maybe because of unemployment. If you're fired for cause, they're not on the hook.

[Rand Rover]

Maybe because of unemployment. If you're fired for cause, they're not on the hook.
But how would that affect the OP?

[t-bonham@scc.net]

When I say rigged, my evaluation looks like this (the categories are nomative but I used numbers to better illustrate): 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2 which averages to an evaluation of 1(?) and my overall evaluation is a 0(?!)I sure hope you aren't teaching math!

[Rand Rover]

I sure hope you aren't teaching math!

I think that's the point--the review gives OK scores in specific categories but then provides an "average score" and an "overall score" that are a lot lower.

[Saint Cad]

I think that's the point--the review gives OK scores in specific categories but then provides an "average score" and an "overall score" that are a lot lower.

Actually I d teach math.
Thats exactly what happened, the overall score is far lower than any individual score. Legally they can lay me off for any reason or no reason but my evaluation had been manufactured so that now they are justified to lay me off. :confused:

[Quartz]

Isn't a false bad evaluation defamation of character?

[Really Not All That Bright]

Employee evaluations are generally considered privileged communications, since they're for internal use only.