Legal Question in Employment Law in California
''Written Employment Agreement'' Information
My wife recently applied for a position with a private school as music director. She was offered the position, which she accepted. To get finalized information about the job for purposes of finding a place to live, etc., we asked for a letter that detailed exactly how much we would be making. She did so, stating in the signed letter that the job had a ''base salary'' of ''approximately $41,000'' and that there would be ''additional stipends'' which would bring the salary higher. Previous employees with the same position received stipends of between 3 and 10 thousand depending on the workload, so we expected a combined salary of at least $44,000, more likely $48,000-50,000. We have been waiting for a contract this whole time. Yesterday, the vice principal said that a class had been cancelled, and that we would be losing our ''overload pay''. Now, when we've finally tried to find out exactly what the salary will be and get a contract, the amount they've given is $34,000 as the ''base salary'' and that the total including all stipends should be $40,100. We have relocated in the meantime under the assumption that our written agreement would be binding, and now are basically suffering a paycut of $7,000. What can we do?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: ''Written Employment Agreement'' Information
More informaton is needed to analyze you matter. If your letter is sufficent to form a contract, you may have a claim under the labor code as to the employer's misrepresentaitons. If you would like a full analysis, feel free to contact me.
Re: ''Written Employment Agreement'' Information
Some basic rules of law to be aware of:
If the employer knowingly made false representations about terms of the employment, such as compensation, to induce you and your wife to relocate to accept the job, the employer may have violated California law. It is similar to, what we call, fraudulent inducement. There are specific damages that can be sought.
However, if circumstances arose, after the dicsussion with your wife, that the employer could not have reasonably forseen, which forced them to reduce the compensation offered, there was no intent to defraud. The hardest part of these types of claims is proving what the employer knew and intended when the initial representations were made.
The rules regarding contracts are very specific. The most important thing to be aware of is that contractual terms must be clear and unambigous to be enforceable. Employers will often claim that until the contract is reduced in writing and signed by the parties, they were just in the negotiation stage.
Clearly, your wife will need to meet with an experienced employment law attorney to review all of the facts and map out legal strategy.
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