Employer harrssment and exploitation

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spry_me

Registered Users (C)
I am posting this question to gather some information for a friend of mine, who is in a very bad shape due to the employer harassment.

The employer has made him sign a "Promissory Note" for $15,000 dollars, and he has to pay that amount if he leaves the company within a stipulated time. My friend has got a perm offer from her client and he wants to join there. Now the employer his harassing my friend to pay the amount mentioned in the promissory note and also the H1-B fees. The employer has already made a tonne of money on my friend. But they are so greedy and inhuman, they dont want spare this poor guy.

There is no way my friend can afford that kind of money at the same time he cannot lose the offer.

Is it legal on the employer's part to make the employee sign a promissory not as guaratee / bond for Job??

Please advice what is the best course of action in this kind of scenario. He even wants to take a legal action on the employer but he is not sure how to proceed.

I vounteered to get some information for him as I could not stand the exploitation for the employer.

Any information you provide is greatly appreciated. Please help.

thanks,
 
This "promissory note" is invalid and unenforceable, unless your friend was given something like an advance, or a car, and was promising to pay back the appropriate amount. If it is something like a promise to pay the employer just because your friend wishes to leave before a certain period, then this isn't legal, and the employer knows this - or should know this.

Ask your friend if the employer has made enough money to cover the cost of getting the H1B and (this only applies if your friend's ticket was paid for by the employer) your friend's ticket. If your friend is sure that the answer is yes, then your friend should formally give notice to the employer and leave. It is very possible that the employer will threaten legal action - tell the employer to go ahead!

The only risk in all this is whether your friend signed a non-compete with the employer. Generally, this agreement allows an employer to prohibit the employee from going ahead and joining the employer's client for some defined period of time. If this is in place, your friend could have a problem in some states (since the law is more favorable to employers in some states). If you give me more detail, I could probably tell you more.
 
Jayant,

First of all let me thank you for such a detailed reply. It is very comforting.

Yes, my friend has signed a non-compete agreement. But he present employer is not a direct vendor to the client, there are 2 layers in between. There is a clause in the non-compete agreement which says my friend cannot join the direct or in-direct customers for two years. This is in the state of Illinois. Do you think this will cause any trouble to him?

Any help and information regarding this question is highly appreciated.

Thanks
 
You are quite welcome.

Is your friend going to be a permanent employee in the same company where he was placed by his former employer, or by the companies his former employer was working with? If the answer is yes, then the former employer might try to at least threaten legal action. However, if the new employer continues to be a client of the former employer, then the former employer will probably not do anything.

If, as you say, two additional layers of companies were involved between the former employer and the new employer, I don't see that your friend has much in the way of risk, because the non-compete would have to prohibit not going after customers of customers of customers, which is an over-broad restriction. No court would allow it to stand.
 
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