KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE
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Employee competing using photos of employer’s accounts – Firing process
/ Alarm Accounts for Sale / ISC Meeting

October 18, 2024
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Employee competing using photos of employer’s accounts – Firing process
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Ken
          We have recently discovered that one of our employees has been using photos of our completed projects to advertise for his own business. We would like to proceed with terminating his employment based on this misuse and are seeking guidance on how to ensure he removes our photos from his Facebook page, where he is presenting them as his own work.
LB
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Response
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          This sounds so wrong I almost have a loss for words …. Almost.  But I do have a few questions and a few quick [and maybe predictable answers – but what did you expect?]
          You don’t seem perturbed that this employee is operating his own competing business; that’s curious.  I am reminded of a conversation I had with one of my first alarm clients – this is a 45 plus year ago conversation.  I asked what he does to guard against his employees using his equipment and material to install jobs on the side during his work time.  His answer may be just as wise now as it was then: He said, “if they are I don’t want to know about it”.  Help, good or not so good, are hard to find, so you may have to grin and bear it sometimes; at least until you blow your stack.
          So this employee is, apparently actively competing against you.  You apparently know about his Facebook page and you note that he is using photos of jobs he installs for you, or perhaps only services them and they were installed by other employees or other companies and he may be passing it off as his work. 
          An analysis starts with whether this employee has signed a K&K Employment Agreement or K&K Employee Handbook [so I have good idea what’s in the agreement and what it covers].  Another question would be how long have you tolerated this employee’s, shall we say, extra activities during work hours you’re paying for?  Another question would be the nature of the pictures and what this employee claims them to represent.  So, is your customer’s security jeopardized? Do the photos compromise the customer or system, or are they of components that would not identify the customer or system? 
          Are you using the photos on your website or promotional material?  Did you have the photos taken and perhaps photo-shopped at your expense?  Are the photos even identifiable to a particular system?  For example, a close up of wiring in a fire alarm panel may not identify any particular system and could come from anywhere.
          If the photos are on your website, taken by you or used with the permission of whoever took the photos, such as a manufacturer who has them posted on its website, then that would clearly be a copyright infringement.  If you don’t use the photos, and perhaps they were taken by the employee, then it’s not copyright infringement but might be violative of his employment terms and conditions.
          Unless you’re in a state that prohibits termination at will [and I know you’re not], you can terminate the employee for no reason at all as long as it’s not because of some sort of protected anti-discrimination.  Sometimes the best reason is no reason.  “Just not working out” is enough, unless you have built into your employment practices some procedure for termination giving employees rights they would not otherwise have.
          Getting this employee to take down pictures, if it really bothers you enough or they do compromise customers or violate copyright that you may be responsible for, a severance package of a week or pay in exchange for an agreement not to use the photos may be the cheapest way out. 
          By the way, Concierge Clients get a free 15 minute consult each month and a 30 minute consult on contract matters each month, well exceeding the price of admission to the Concierge Program.  You are a Concierge Client, but many others aren’t.  Join now.  Another benefit is that a question like this will get a response sent to the sender. If not a Concierge Client a response will be in a circulated article.
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Featured Listings for Sale
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For Sale: Southern California: commercial Net RMR $17,000.00; approximately 80 customers with 324 locations. No fire. Concentrated in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties. Third party vendors: Brivo, Eagle Eye, Cradlepoint. Equipment: Genetec, Brivo, Eagle Eye, Ocularius, DMP, Dell, Axis. Monitoring center: NMC. Most under K&K contracts. Panels: DMP. Significant EBITDA. More information requires a K&K NDA. Contact Ken Kirschenbaum at 516 747 6700 x 301 or Ken@Kirschenbaumesq.com
For Sale: Nassau County, New York. approx 221 alarm accounts. residential 190; commercial security and fire 31; RMR approx $13,230.00 [res $8844; comm security and fire $2118; Inspection RMR $2268; Resideo / Honeywell; some Radionics. Vista 20P / Vista 128BPT. Most accounts on updated K&K contracts. Contact Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq at 516 747 6700 x 301 or Ken@Kirschenbaumesq.com. K&K NDA will be required for more information.
For Sale: New Jersey. 90 alarm accounts, 43 residential; 13 commercial security; 29 commercial fire. Central Station: Rapid Monitoring RMR $4100 net; fire inspection RMR $1740. Equipment Honeywell, System Sensor, and M2M; Honeywell panels; one Napco account. 95% are in NJ from Alpine down to LBI. The remaining 5% are in PA and NY (not NYC); all on K&K contracts. Contact Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq if interested. 516 747 6700 x 301; Ken@Kirschenbaumesq.com; K&K NDA will be required
For Sale. Phoenix area, Arizona., 181 alarm monitoring accounts [115 res; 66 commercial; commercial fire 5]. Net RMR $4700.00; DSC panel and equipment; Microkey softrware. Older contracts for most part. K&K NDA required for more information. Contact Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq at ken@kirschenbaumesq.com or 516 747 6700 x 301.
For Sale: Lewisburg, West Virginia. Alarm accounts [K&K contracts]. RMR monitoring: $9,872; # of accts: 338 % res: 74%; % comm sec: 20%; % comm fire: 6%; Inspection and service all per call. cs:Security Central, Statesville, NC. On segregated lines; Accts concentrated: Greenbrier County; equip used: Panel: QOLSYS IQ4; software: Mobile Tech, Alarm.com. K&K NDA required for more information. Contact our attorney Ken Kirschenbaum for details. 516 747 6700 x 301; Ken@Kirschenbaumesq.com
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Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum PC
Attorneys at Law
200 Garden City Plaza
Garden City, NY 11530
516 747 6700 x 301
ken@kirschenbaumesq.com
www.KirschenbaumEsq.com