• Grimy@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I would check with your local laws but it’s very rare those kinds of policy are enforceable. If you need to pay them 5k to quit, it’s akin to slavery.

    • nfh@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      No, they’re actually pretty common in certain industries, and definitely enforceable, at least for sure within the state of California. If you sign a contract that says you get a certain amount of money for starting a job, contingent on working for them a certain length of time, that’s typically paid out on day 1, but you have to pay it back if you leave early.

      • Grimy@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Ya for sure, my point is more that compagnies will use it even in place where it isn’t enforceable. Although it’s an anecdote, it did happen to my sister in a place where it wasn’t allowed. They didn’t even ask again after the first time she told them to pound sand.

        I also really doubt if it’s enforceable in California if there is a valid reason. I can’t imagine a company going after someone if they quit because of a toxic environment, lax safety standards, sexual harassment or something similar. But I’m just making an educated guess tbh.

        I knew about it in California but it always surprises me with its reputation.

        • nfh@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          I wouldn’t doubt companies would use it any place it’s not enforceable, and at least attempt to collect.

          I’m not sure the nuances of it, other than having talked to a couple of people who were in that situation, talked to an attorney, and ended up paying. I would suspect having a valid reason like sexual harassment wouldn’t affect if it’s enforceable per se, but give you a lot of leverage to convince a company it isn’t worth pressing the issue.

    • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      Yeah slavery is pretty much just legal in a bunch of the US. It could be worse, I could be a prison laborer or one of those immigrant nurses who have been basically legally human trafficked into high violence positions like psychiatry, ER, or skilled nursing facilities (nursing homes, lots of dementia with little support / backup). I do work psychiatry but I’m an actual psych nurse as opposed to a medical specialty nurse who got suckered into it with no actual psych experience and now is stuck dodging punches to keep their green card. It’s really hard to not sound prejudiced when honestly my biggest problem with them bringing in so many international nurses is that they’re doing the immigrant nurses dirty. The fact that their abuse exists as a mechanism to depress my wages is just icing on the shit cake.