One of our supervisors offered an employee a promotion. The supervisor had approval to quote the dollar figure that she did to the employee. Subsequent to her conversation with the employee, the Board voted to decrease the raise by a third. Are we obligated to pay the employee the amount that the supervisor quoted? The employee believes the law is on her side. Please advise. Rita Risser responds: The employee's argument would be that she had a contract, because the supervisor offered the raise and the employee accepted. However, in order for there to be a valid contract, the employee must have given up something in exchange (what lawyers call consideration or detrimental reliance). For example, if the employee gave up a job with another company that paid more, in reliance upon the promised raise, then the contract would be enforceable. Assuming the employee did not give up anything to accept the promotion, she does not have the right to enforce it, and you do not have to pay her the promised amount. That is the legal answer. From an employee morale perspective, you still have a problem. From a values perspective, you have an even bigger one. Your Board should never counteract management's decisions, unless those decisions are illegal, immoral or unethical. In fact, the Board should not be involved at this level of detail in the day to day management of the company. You should figure out a procedure to avoid these problems in the future. And if I were you, I'd go back to the Board and get the original raise authorized. Good luck! Information here is correct at the time it is posted. Case decisions cited here may be reversed. Please do not rely on this information without consulting an attorney first. You are encouraged to subscribe, link, pass along to others, and/or reprint these articles/pages electronically or on paper, as long as the following credit line is used: © Copyright 1997-2002, Fair Measures, www.FairMeasures.com. For more information about Fair Measures please contact us at: Fair Measures, P.O. Box 2146, Santa Cruz, CA, 95063, 831-458-0500, 800-458-2778, FAX 831-458-0181, info@fairmeasures.com © Copyright 1997-2002 by Fair Measures. All rights reserved. Read our Privacy Policy. To back-page, Use your browser BACK button