Premise: in my experience when you are a solo-freelancer working for a corporation who does have their own lawyers and resources to fight against you, a win is very unlikely (I have even been told this fact face-to-face). Nonetheless I would like to have a second opinion.
I am a professional developer ("programmer") and I was working for a US-based company (remote position) as a freelancer (i.e. as a company). The contract was meant to last until the end of year 2017 but they terminated the collaboration (by email, not even over a call and with absolutely no notice ).
As any contract, termination conditions exist. In this specific case (I quote):
<< The company engaging with the contractor has the right to terminate the agreement after several warnings have been issues >>
However, no FORMAL warning has ever been issued. All I got is:
- A Slack message expressing some "generic concern" (after I communicated some personal struggles and that I was aware my productivity level was not at the top for the last 2 weeks)
- I've been told I made one mistake in my job, which I believe it can happen
Nonetheless, the company I am considering suing has sent out a cold email, announcing that they (and the clients the project was committed to) would void the collaboration for poor performance and lack of commitment.
I know I could use Slack records and even (very few, unfortunately) emails as proof. However, Slack as many other business apps is a "black box" so I have no way to access those records.
When I expressed my concerns about this unfair decision, my message was ignored.
My final question is:
- can I legally put pressure on the company to get a compensation? (e.g. write an article explaining what they did)
- Is it worth suing them (they're US-based), considering the cost or the legal action would not come cheap (I guess)? As a side note I am based in Europe (I avoid putting the country here, as a means to protect my privacy)