Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > The Academy > Tilted Life


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 08-16-2005, 10:21 AM   #1 (permalink)
Upright
 
Location: New jersey
Problem with my employer

8 months ago i joined a small consulting company, in the contract its stated that I would work for them for a period of one year at least so they could recover the costs of training me. Now most of the traning comprised of me sitting at home and reading up stuff from books and manuals and things like that, but i guess they could still call that training. A month ago I got an oppourtunity to join another company. I gave my previous employer 11 days notice before I left. I know its not the usual 2 weeks but I had no choice as things happened kinda quickly. My question is, is it legal for my employer to withhold paying me my salary for any reason? recovering training costs or breach of the one year contract (the contract has no terms of breakage which seems weired to me.) or for not giving em the 2 weeks notice?
sorry if this seems like the wrong forum for it, didnt know where to put it.
maul is offline  
Old 08-16-2005, 10:26 AM   #2 (permalink)
Tilted Cat Head
 
Cynthetiq's Avatar
 
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
Quote:
Originally Posted by maul
8 months ago i joined a small consulting company, in the contract its stated that I would work for them for a period of one year at least so they could recover the costs of training me. Now most of the traning comprised of me sitting at home and reading up stuff from books and manuals and things like that, but i guess they could still call that training. A month ago I got an oppourtunity to join another company. I gave my previous employer 11 days notice before I left. I know its not the usual 2 weeks but I had no choice as things happened kinda quickly. My question is, is it legal for my employer to withhold paying me my salary for any reason? recovering training costs or breach of the one year contract (the contract has no terms of breakage which seems weired to me.) or for not giving em the 2 weeks notice?
sorry if this seems like the wrong forum for it, didnt know where to put it.
you didn't live to your end of the contract, so they could withold costs of training or even breach of contract, but you'd could fight it in small claims court.

most states are "at will" even though contracts may be stipulated differently.
__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.
Cynthetiq is offline  
Old 08-16-2005, 10:35 AM   #3 (permalink)
Upright
 
Location: New jersey
Also is it ok for a contract to not have a "terms for breaking" clause? mine has none? Is that normal?
maul is offline  
Old 08-16-2005, 10:43 AM   #4 (permalink)
Adequate
 
cyrnel's Avatar
 
Location: In my angry-dome.
The two weeks is generally a courtesy notice. It's important if you want to remain on good terms with the previous employer and people in that business. Eleven days is not bad at all. As an employer I would understand, but would expect some communication about the 8mo/1yr situation.

Your employer paying you to sit at home and read is definitely training. Your reduced effectiveness at work because you weren't up-to-speed is why I presume you weren't hired at an up-to-speed wage - you were learning on the job. Eight months is substantial, but at less than twelve, you didn't live up to your commitment. Did you communicate with your management before giving notice? That's often enough to smooth these situations.

I haven't held wages in these situations. Delayed, but not held. Usually the worker is becoming known for their patterns, hopefully learning lessons along the way. You could file against the employer which may follow you. You could call it a mistake and let it go. Or, if the amount is substantial, negotiate. 8/12 = 66% and don't burn the bridge?

Your largest assets at work are the relationships you maintain. Try not to make "largest assets" into something negative.
__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195
cyrnel is offline  
Old 08-16-2005, 10:50 AM   #5 (permalink)
Darth Papa
 
ratbastid's Avatar
 
Location: Yonder
Your contract should spell out exactly what their rights are in the event of your defaulting on the agreement. If they're following that to the letter, it's perfectly legal. If not, it's not.

You did keep a copy of your contract, didn't you?
ratbastid is offline  
Old 08-16-2005, 10:54 AM   #6 (permalink)
Lover - Protector - Teacher
 
Jinn's Avatar
 
Location: Seattle, WA
It greatly depends on what this "contract" is.. it could simply be a salary offer, which is calculated in years and speaks in terms of 12 months. However, that doesn't in-any-way impede on your at-will employment. Read the "contract" carefully.. because unless you explicitly agree to work for twelve months or more, you've nothing to worry about.
__________________
"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel
Jinn is offline  
Old 08-16-2005, 11:14 AM   #7 (permalink)
Upright
 
Location: New jersey
I want to clarify that when I was training at home I was not receiving any pay. I was put on a project with one of their clients (they are a consulting company) after I finished my training, thats when I started receiving my salary.

Quote:
Training and Exclusive rights to Market: company will be giving you access to the
Proprietary company Mentorship and Training Program at no cost to you and place you at one of our client sites. Therefore, company expects you to work for us as an employee for 1 year to
recover the training costs and other costs that are associated with that.
Thats is the only thing in the contract. Nothing else stating the conditions under which I can break or get out of the contract. I did speak to them about leaving and they wanted at least 4 weeks time since I was breaking the contract. I couldnt do that as I needed to start with the new company at a certain date and they would not wait an additional 2 weeks for me to join. I was suppoesed to get paid 2 days ago and still havent received my direct deposit. I can understand if my previous employer files for a compensation claim or something but is holding back one months pay legal?

Last edited by maul; 08-16-2005 at 11:19 AM..
maul is offline  
Old 08-16-2005, 08:09 PM   #8 (permalink)
Tilted
 
Location: Massachusetts
It really depends on the state. Usually, employment contracts are unenforceable, but the line becomes blurred if the contract deviates from your typical employment agreement.
RusCrimson is offline  
Old 08-23-2005, 06:30 AM   #9 (permalink)
A Storm Is Coming
 
thingstodo's Avatar
 
Location: The Great White North
If you were under contract it means that you were not an employee, so employment law shouldn't apply. Of course, that depends on local laws so this is just a general opinion.

You did sign a contract even though there was no termination clause. So it should hold up. They were pretty nice to negotiate a four week notice even though they didn't need to do so. That shows a good faith effort on their part to work things out. Seems like they could charge whatever is a reasonable fee for the training provided, regardless of how you see the value. Fighting that would in all likelyhood cost you more than it's worth.

My two cents is that you just deal with it and move you. The new job was obviously worth more to you than honoring a written agreement so there is a consequence to that. Next time you sign a contract you'll know to make sure there is a termination clause that is acceptable to you. It's all about learning lessons in life and I'm sure this lesson will pay off inthe future!
__________________
If you're wringing your hands you can't roll up your shirt sleeves.

Stangers have the best candy.
thingstodo is offline  
Old 08-26-2005, 06:02 AM   #10 (permalink)
Cunning Runt
 
Marvelous Marv's Avatar
 
Location: Taking a mulligan
Let me make sure I understand:

They didn't pay you for training (I would think this is illegal if you're an employee), but they want you to stay for a year, in order for them to recoup your training expenses, which appear to be zero?

I don't think you owe them much of anything, since your training period consisted of your working for free. Every law I know of says they have to pay you your last check.

As Cyrnel says, if you can handle it professionally, it's always the best way.

P.S. They said they "expect" you to stay for a year. That's not binding.
__________________
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
Margaret Thatcher
Marvelous Marv is offline  
Old 08-26-2005, 10:33 AM   #11 (permalink)
Tilted
 
What was exactly used in this training program? I'm trying to get a feel for what type of costs had to be recouped for the "Mentorship and Training Program."

All I can say is lesson learned. Definitely think twice about working somewhere that is expecting a year's commitment for non-paid training.
odu_sonar_AE is offline  
 

Tags
employer, problem


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 03:50 PM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360