Question

NOTE: This assignment is about contract between COMPANY and CLIENTS - NOT employees!! The terms and conditions listed towards the bottom in bold are just EXAMPLES, not to be used!

BMGT 380 Learning Activity Week 4

Background: Contracts are essential for business, and will be an integral part of GC operations, so the owners now want to focus on contract law. Each of the owners has experience with contracts in their own businesses, and appreciate the probable risks and liabilities associated with contracts. They also know that to avoid possible disputes with employees and clients, contracts should be comprehensive, clear, and specific. The GC owners know that there are various types of contract agreements relevant to their business. GC will have individual contracts with employees, independent contractors, and other agents who will represent the company. Also, GC will engage in sales contracts with other businesses, consumers, and clients.  

To reduce disputes and risks and liabilities associated with contracts, the owners want all contracts to be written, with specific, complete, and clear terms. Contracts must define the rights and responsibilities of the parties. Also, since employees and/or independent contractors will be performing cleaning services on clients’ properties, these contracts should require bonding for all employees.

You, Winnie, and Ralph presented draft contracts for GC employees, including different contracts for cleaners, office managers, marketing specialists, sales representatives, and IT employees.

The GC owners reviewed the drafts and have some questions about the contracts.

Background Facts You Need to Know: At Winnie’s and Ralph’s request, it is your responsibility to research and provide answers to the GC owners’ questions. As an example, Winnie, Ralph, the GC owners, and you have determined that GC's contract with its cleaner- employees will include the following terms and conditions:

• specific duties to be performed by cleaner-employee
• salary for cleaner-employee
• work hours
• terms of payment for overtime or holiday work, if any
• sick leave
• vacation leave
• training requirements for cleaner-employee
• length of contract
• bonding for cleaner-employee
• periodic performance evaluation and how it will be conducted
• termination of the contract, i.e., a notice of termination, etc.

Instructions

This is an application-oriented Learning Activity. You will not find verbatim answers anywhere. Engage in critical thinking and review all this week's assigned readings in Overview. You may also need to review previously assigned materials in weeks 2 and 3.

Report You Need to Prepare: To begin developing a contract between GC and its cleaning clients, prepare a report that addresses the following (note that this is for a contract with GC's clients and not GC's employees).

REPORT

TO:              Winnie James, Ralph Anders

FROM:        

DATE:        April 7^th, 2020

RE:     Terms of Green Clean Contracts with Clients

1. Identify five (5) contract terms and conditions - other than price - that should be included in the GC contract with its cleaning clients.

Contract Terms and Conditions

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

2. Analyze and briefly discuss why each term is important to include in a GC-client cleaning contract.

Answer 1

GC will want to include in the contract that the employee provides services with company for a probationary period while in training. Under a bonding contract, GC can include a monetary penalty if an employee leaves the job while in training. This allows GC to recoup the expense occurred hiring and training the employee.

The training clause also reduces the possibility of unintentional torts to clients and their properties and protects GC from costly litigation suits. Proper training ensures equipment and materials are used correctly by employees with minimal to no accidental risks to themselves and/or clients. For example, Madison had a remodeling business that was sued by a client. One of the employees accidentally injured the client by dropping a ladder on the client’s leg. From GC’s perspective, reducing the risk of lawsuits from clients due to any kind of tort is protection of the business first.

A confidentially clause will be a needed addition to the cleaner-employees contract. If an employee decides to terminate employment (or vice versa), a confidentiality clause will keep them from sharing trade secrets and company business practices with the competition; a confidentiality agreement is also enforceable in court.

GC will need to include a cancellation policy in the contract. The cancellation term should provide clients at least 24hours notice to cancel and provide a maximum number of cancellations. The clause should also spell out ramifications for GC if they fail to notify client within 24 hours of a cancellation. If the client breaches the contract terms, GC can charge them a percentage fee.

Including this term protects GC from possible financial losses such as the cost to travel to property (i.e. cost of gasoline). It also provides the opportunity to fill cancelled slots with new clients. Lastly, the material breach allows GC to recoup some of the money lost or to seek legal remedies.