Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Promises of possible promotion are merely incentives to get employees to work hard, not enforceable contracts. Protections? The employer is entitled to set and change hours, duties, titles, compensation, benefits, leaves, vacations, holidays, policies, rules, etc. just not retroactively. Employees have the 'right' to pay and employee benefits per the law and company policy as agreed, to be provided a 'safe' workplace to minimize risk of injury, and sometimes are entitled to certain medical/pregnancy leave rights. That's about it. In general, unless an employee is civil service, in a union, or has a written employment contract, they are an 'at will' employee that can be disciplined or fired any time for any reason, with or without �cause� or explanation, other than for illegal discrimination, harassment or retaliation under the ADA disability, Civil Rights [age, race, sex, ethnic, religion, pregnancy, etc], Whistle-blower, or similar statutes. The employee's goal should be to keep the employer happy.

California Labor Code, Section 970 make it unlawful for an employer to knowingly misrepresent the kind, character or existence of a position, including compensation, which causes an employee to relocate their residence from one place to another, in reliance upon the false representation. The key, here, is being able to prove the people you dealt with knew, at the time you were offered the Director position, you were not eligible for it, yet induced you to relocate anyway.

But even if you can prove this, if you are satisfied with your current position, you must think carefully about what you would hope to accomplish should you choose to make this an issue.