When is an employer's 'lie' slanderous?

DEAR CARRIE: I lost my full-time position recently because of budget cuts. A company manager falsely told my former co-workers and clients that my exit was "a mutually agreed to decision" or that I left "voluntarily."

As the family breadwinner in a terrible economic climate, this lie has the potential to make prospective employers question my judgment and decline to consider hiring me. Do I have any recourse against my former employer? -- Slandered?

DEAR SLANDERED: I spoke with a workplace expert who believes the statements may be your former manager's awkward attempt to put the best face on a situation for you and the company.

"The company may be doing it in a misguided effort to make it look better for you," said Lewis Maltby, president of The National Workrights Institute in Princeton, N.J., and the author of "Can They Do That? Retaking our fundamental rights in the workplace," (Portfolio, 2009, $25.95).

And Maltby said the company's overarching strategy in all this could be to try to avoid the stigma of a layoff. "Unless the employer is trying to pretend it didn't have a layoff, it has nothing to gain by making these statements," he said.

The test for a legal claim here is whether the remarks are slanderous -- that is, spoken words that damage your reputation. Maltby doesn't believe the company's comments fall into that category.

"The criticism here is probably not severe enough for a court to consider it defamatory," Maltby said. "It's illegal to say something untrue about former employees that is defamatory and hurts their chances to get another job."

Maltby suggests that you offer to help provide a better script for the company regarding yourself.

"Have you tried asking them to say, 'She was a good employee, but we had to lay her off as part of a reduction in force?' " he said.

I would also try to find out why the supervisor decided on the remarks that bothered you. Perhaps an explanation, no matter how screwy, will give you a better understanding of the company's motives and make you less suspicious.

The company could have saved you a lot of angst by just taking the direct approach and asking what you wanted it to say when people inquired about you. Then the company's intentions would have been crystal clear. 

DEAR CARRIE: I work for the Unified Court System of the State of New York. Everyone in the system, including judges and nonjudicial employees who make a certain amount annually, has to file a yearly financial disclosure form. That form requires us to report such things as our investments, any income we receive from another job and property that we own.

And as if that weren't enough, we also have to report extensive information on our spouse's salary: whom they work for, any extra income they receive and the property and investments they have. This feels like an invasion of privacy for both me and my husband. And it infuriates me. Are these requirements legal?  -- Too Much Info? 

DEAR TOO MUCH: Sorry, but the requirements, as probing as they seem, are legal, Maltby said.

"To the best of my knowledge, the woman who works for the judiciary is out of luck," he said. "To ensure that the judiciary is honest and independent, judicial employees are required to make financial disclosures to make sure they aren't receiving money that could create a conflict of interest."

And he added, "Since you don't have to be a judge to influence the outcome of a case, all higher-level employees have to make these disclosures."

Click here for more on defamation law from citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/new-york-defamation-law

Or click here for information from  elinfonet.com/blog/index/employee_rights/Employee_Defamation_in_New_York/