Are Training Contracts worth the paper....?

[LegacyDriver]

I keep hearing all this talk about Training Contracts being unenforceable and so forth. I find that hard to imagine. If they are worthless, why do employers go through the trouble of making you sign them?

 

[Jim]

After I was furloughed by HAL, I had a job offer that required a $24k/2yr training contract. I got the HAL MEC Chairman to run it by the ALPA lawyers/contract administrators. In their opinion, it was enforcable and the courts would hold me to its terms.

 

[ultrarunner]

These are 'employment' conctracts, and are in fact inforceable. They just happen to address the costs associated with training.

My wife is an HR. Sr. VP for a major corporation, and she and her legal department write employment contracts all the time...usually for hires at VP level and above.

They are and do get enforced. However, there are provisions for each side.... "should the employee be terminated" or "should the employee resign".

 

[sleepy]

My lawyer wife says that if you sign it, it is enforcible. The law may vary from state to state though.

 

[Huggyu2]

Just a thought: if you go in knowing the terms, and sign up to those terms, why would you question whether it is possible to "get out of it"?

 

[Gulfstream 200]

Here is a wild thought:

If you sign something, how about living up to it?

 

[aeronautic1]

Contract

During my employment interview, it was asked if I had a problem signing a 2 year contract before they spent nearly $35K on initial typing me in the G200 (FS, travel, hotel, meals etc...). My response was, "I don't want a two year contract. I want a 15 year contract!" Needless to say, my employer stopped taking applications and conducting interviews and I got to go to Sim City! Also negotiated a decent compensation package, I might add. If you stop thinking like a prima donna pilot and start thinking like a business man, you can achieve all kinds of possibilities.

 

[Thedude]

But the vast majority of places that make you sign a training contract aren't worth working for.

Did the company disclose during the interview or before you left your current job, that a training contract was required. If they didn't ,I highly doubt that the contract is enforcable.

 

[Huggyu2]

"I don't want a two year contract. I want a 15 year contract!" QUOTE]

Excellent answer! A lot of us should have thought of that.

 

[I.P. Freley]

Did the company disclose during the interview or before you left your current job, that a training contract was required. If they didn't ,I highly doubt that the contract is enforcable.

Good luck proving you "weren't told in the interview" that you'd have a training contract. If you ended up signing it, then you're usually stuck... Unless the contract was poorly written and has holes in it that will let you get out of it.

 

[bart]

What is your word worth?

Or did you have your fingers crossed?

 

[LegacyDriver]

Well, I was considering going to another company but they said that even if they fire you "Without Cause" (i.e. Furlough) they can force you to repay the training contract. That doesn't sound like something I am willing to expose myself to. The day after you walk in the door they can get rid of you because they "overhired" and you are liable for $15-20K?! NO WAY.

 

[English]

LegacyDriver,

Which company? I used to work at a company where I signed the exact same contract. They furloughed me and did NOT force me to repay the contract.

 

[I.P. Freley]

This is the first I've heard of a training contract that forces repayment even in the case of a furlough. Are you sure you read that part right?