What to expect if I breach the employment agreement?

[Farida Nelson]

Hi,

I have arrived to the US (St. Louis, Missouri) on October, 20, 2015. I have won the DV Lottery 2014 and my family and I had received our Green Cards in January 2016.

I had a pre-arranged employment and my employer send me a letter in July 2015, which states that my hourly salary will be 30$. So I was expecting to earn at least $2500 gross upon arrival. I started my teaching job at this music school and signed an employment agreement on Nov., 3, 2015. I honestly don't remember signing the agreement, maybe because I had a nervous breakdown those days, but anyways, there is my signature there and the agreement states, that I will be earning 20$ an hour 'till Jan., 1, then 22$ 'till April, 1, and then 24 $. I haven't received a copy of that contract, so I didn't even know that it exists.
Anyways, I didn't have a choice, but to stay and work, because I have a 3-year-old child and a husband that had a bypass surgery on October, 5th, 2015, less than 3 weeks before we arrived. I tried looking for another teaching job in this area, but all in vain.

During the winter break I started sending out my CVs all around the country, because we were struggling to survive and the savings that we had were almost gone. In March I received 3 different job offers from California (46$/hour, 40$/hour and 38$/hour) and 1 from Florida. We decided to move to California. I told my employer on March 16th that we will be moving after the Spring quarter in the end of May (2 months notice) and I need to break my agreement, but she started yelling at me, told me that she will sue me and told me that this move will cost me thousands and thousands of dollars...

Can anyone tell me what to expect? Can she really do something like that?

More details:

Here is what's written in the agreement:

"
BREACH:
In the event of a breach of this agreement, including but not limited to the enforcement of trade secrets/confidential information or covenant not to complete, the parties agree that the School will recover from the teacher breaching this agreement, all claims which may be sustained, including but not limited to attorney's fees, cost and necessary disbursements in addition to any other relief to which the School may be entitled. In addition, Teacher will play (I guess this is a mechanical mistake she made) the School's cost incurred in replacing teacher if contract is not fulfilled including advertising, training, loss of students and any other costs involved in Teacher breaking contract.
"

Please, help me understand what am I dealing with?

 

[Britsimon]

Hi,

I have arrived to the US (St. Louis, Missouri) on October, 20, 2015. I have won the DV Lottery 2014 and my family and I had received our Green Cards in January 2016.

I had a pre-arranged employment and my employer send me a letter in July 2015, which states that my hourly salary will be 30$. So I was expecting to earn at least $2500 gross upon arrival. I started my teaching job at this music school and signed an employment agreement on Nov., 3, 2015. I honestly don't remember signing the agreement, maybe because I had a nervous breakdown those days, but anyways, there is my signature there and the agreement states, that I will be earning 20$ an hour 'till Jan., 1, then 22$ 'till April, 1, and then 24 $. I haven't received a copy of that contract, so I didn't even know that it exists.
Anyways, I didn't have a choice, but to stay and work, because I have a 3-year-old child and a husband that had a bypass surgery on October, 5th, 2015, less than 3 weeks before we arrived. I tried looking for another teaching job in this area, but all in vain.

During the winter break I started sending out my CVs all around the country, because we were struggling to survive and the savings that we had were almost gone. In March I received 3 different job offers from California (46$/hour, 40$/hour and 38$/hour) and 1 from Florida. We decided to move to California. I told my employer on March 16th that we will be moving after the Spring quarter in the end of May (2 months notice) and I need to break my agreement, but she started yelling at me, told me that she will sue me and told me that this move will cost me thousands and thousands of dollars...

Can anyone tell me what to expect? Can she really do something like that?

More details:

Here is what's written in the agreement:

"
BREACH:
In the event of a breach of this agreement, including but not limited to the enforcement of trade secrets/confidential information or covenant not to complete, the parties agree that the School will recover from the teacher breaching this agreement, all claims which may be sustained, including but not limited to attorney's fees, cost and necessary disbursements in addition to any other relief to which the School may be entitled. In addition, Teacher will play (I guess this is a mechanical mistake she made) the School's cost incurred in replacing teacher if contract is not fulfilled including advertising, training, loss of students and any other costs involved in Teacher breaking contract.
"

Please, help me understand what am I dealing with?

This is not an immigration issue - it really is an employment law issue. So - anyone here is generally only going to be giving opinions, with or without the knowledge to back up their opinion. If you are unsure, the safest course of action is to see a lawyer that specializes in employment law.

However, I'll make a few points (again - I am not an expert - just my opinions).

Generally when you sign a contract you can expect that someone may try to enforce that contract. Their method to enforce the contract is by legal action and you get to make an argument about that (in court if necessary). In general, most contracts would not get enforced because the costs of taking legal action are relatively high and you are unlikely to be "worth it". In other words, it is only worth suing someone if they have a lot of money. However, it is better to avoid these situations because the costs of defending an action can add up fast.

Next point. Slavery has been abolished in this country. So - whilst someone can shout at you, they cannot force you to work. Non compete clauses are somewhat enforceable, but only in cases where you would be in direct competition and they can show specific losses that would be incurred by your breach of a contract (if in fact that breach even happened). Those clauses are rarely enforced for "lower level" staff.

Next point. Don't sign stuff without reading and understand your obligations. When you do sign stuff keep a copy of the contracts!

Next point. Your contract should have a termination clause. You need to know the terms of that termination and any specified costs that were detailed for early termination. The fact that the contract has a bad spelling mistake shows their contract is probably not well written, and therefore may be easily defeated, but the first step is to have a lawyer look at the contract to say whether your 2 months notice was correct according to the terms of the contract and "reasonable". It probably was (especially since Missouri is an "at will" state) - but you need a lawyer to advise on that.

Last point. California has some expensive areas. $46/hour might sound like a lot, but it depends where. It would not be high salary in my area for instance. You can use the cost of living calculator to understand the differences between cities. For instance $50k/year in St Louis is the same as $94k/year in San Francisco.

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/

 

[EURO2014]

Hi,

I have arrived to the US (St. Louis, Missouri) on October, 20, 2015. I have won the DV Lottery 2014 and my family and I had received our Green Cards in January 2016.

I had a pre-arranged employment and my employer send me a letter in July 2015, which states that my hourly salary will be 30$. So I was expecting to earn at least $2500 gross upon arrival. I started my teaching job at this music school and signed an employment agreement on Nov., 3, 2015. I honestly don't remember signing the agreement, maybe because I had a nervous breakdown those days, but anyways, there is my signature there and the agreement states, that I will be earning 20$ an hour 'till Jan., 1, then 22$ 'till April, 1, and then 24 $. I haven't received a copy of that contract, so I didn't even know that it exists.
Anyways, I didn't have a choice, but to stay and work, because I have a 3-year-old child and a husband that had a bypass surgery on October, 5th, 2015, less than 3 weeks before we arrived. I tried looking for another teaching job in this area, but all in vain.

During the winter break I started sending out my CVs all around the country, because we were struggling to survive and the savings that we had were almost gone. In March I received 3 different job offers from California (46$/hour, 40$/hour and 38$/hour) and 1 from Florida. We decided to move to California. I told my employer on March 16th that we will be moving after the Spring quarter in the end of May (2 months notice) and I need to break my agreement, but she started yelling at me, told me that she will sue me and told me that this move will cost me thousands and thousands of dollars...

Can anyone tell me what to expect? Can she really do something like that?

More details:

Here is what's written in the agreement:

"
BREACH:
In the event of a breach of this agreement, including but not limited to the enforcement of trade secrets/confidential information or covenant not to complete, the parties agree that the School will recover from the teacher breaching this agreement, all claims which may be sustained, including but not limited to attorney's fees, cost and necessary disbursements in addition to any other relief to which the School may be entitled. In addition, Teacher will play (I guess this is a mechanical mistake she made) the School's cost incurred in replacing teacher if contract is not fulfilled including advertising, training, loss of students and any other costs involved in Teacher breaking contract.
"

Please, help me understand what am I dealing with?

@FARIDA, Britsimon makes a number of excellent points. As he points out, you need to have the contract in question looked over by a lawyer asap - you don't need to spend a ton of money on that - there are free legal clinics etc., staffed by experienced lawyers who donate their time for this purpose. The way you describe the matter, any resulting claims may be easily defeated, yet you need to consult with a lawyer ready to defend you, if so required. Good luck!