Hey legal types - not looking for advice, just trying to get a feel for my company exposure in this situation.
We had an employee, now laid off in a company reorganization. Before she left, she had verbally “contracted” with a couple people she knows to come in and help her with some work decorating our retail store. She did not clear this with me, her supervisor. In fact, she had been told specifically not to spend any more money due to cash flow constraints. I found out about this when I received an invoice from the people (friends of hers, not a company).
There are multiple side issues concerning what work these people may have actually done - the hours can’t be right, for one thing. The employee had permission to use thee people in the past (before my time) to help her set up a second holiday store which we are not running.
The woman I spoke to claims we should pay her regardless of all this because the work was done for the company and we had paid her for similar work in prior years (questionable, at best). She says she is going to her lawyer to fight this. Before I jump the gun and run to pay for legal advice before I need to, I wanted to get a feel for my exposure here.
We actually don’t mind paying a reasonable rate to these people for their time, but they are asking an outragous amount for something that (a) did not need to be done, and (b) if it have been done, we have volunteers or staff already who can and would do it. I have so far made no indication that we would compromise on a reasonable rate as the woman’s reaction on the phone was belligerent and threatening, and she feels that we should be jolly grateful it was as little as it was.
So, should I talk to an attorney right away or wait and see?