Motorola sued for wrongful termination by employee it praised

Posted Mar 5th 2009 9:50AM by Mark Fightmaster
Filed under: Management, Motorola (MOT)

What can happen in a 16-day span? Well, according to Motorola (NYSE: MOT), a former employee -- whom the the firm "appreciated" -- can become a former employee who may have failed "to substantially perform duties," engaged in dishonesty, "gross misconduct," and breached "one or more restrictive covenants." (These are definitions for cause, not actual reasons cited by MOT for Liska's departure.) According to this Wall Street Journal article, former MOT chief financial officer Paul Liska filed a wrongful termination suit against the cellphone producer on February 20.

Yesterday, Liska expressed surprise in realizing that his termination was assigned cause. When MOT reported earnings (actually, a lack thereof) early in February, it stated that Liska was being replaced because the firm was delaying the spinoff of its cellphone unit. The firm's co-CEO actually praised Liska, noting "He did a lot of good work here." However, a recent SEC filing brought to light the fact that MOT asked Liska to repay a $400,000 cash signing bonus on February 19, noting that he was "involuntarily terminated for cause."

This revelation came as a surprise to Liska, who told the Journal that for three weeks after his January 29 firing he and his attorney were told that he was terminated without cause. Liska added that neither he nor his attorney were contacted about the change in the reason for the firing (he learned of it by reading a copy of the SEC filing).

MOT would not comment on the change in the parameters of Liska's departure, but a MOT spokeswoman noted that "Motorola is in full compliance with all financial-reporting requirements" following a review by its auditors.

I truly hope that this is a disagreement between a bitter ex-employee and a bitter company -- but something sure seems funny here. Is MOT trying to recoup some funds during the financial crisis by playing a we-said-he-said game? If this is the case, it sets a dangerous precedent for any high-level employee who is shown the door.

Tags: employment, inthenews, lawsuits, mot, Motorola, Paul Liska, PaulLiska, questionable business practices, QuestionableBusinessPractices, wrongful termination, WrongfulTermination

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-06-2009 @ 8:38PM

steve said...

Mot may as well shut the doors cause all they turn out is JUNK. Thats right I said JUNK... I used to hail by Motorola cell phones, now I stay as far away from them as I can. In 18 months with my carrier, I went through 6, thats right 6, phones. When I could upgrade I did so and got rid of that Motorola JUNK!!!!!

4-03-2009 @ 2:47PM

kPa said...

Paul Liska does not waste time in getting to the ultimate solution most productive for saving an organization like Motorola. If you can't take sharp, incisive, well thought out, action oriented finanacial management, then, he's not the guy for you. To try to hide behind a phony involuntary termination for cause--without established cause--is just a smokescreen for senior management and a board that does little to serivce the shareholders properly....Paul Liska will go on to be successful at a company where success is on the agenda.