I am going to try this without too many specifics.
My wife was recently reduced from salaried exempt with benefits to part-time, hourly, non-exempt (or even still exempt, not really sure) with reduced hours and no benefits. I know that part is legal. The hourly rate was what she was making as a salary employee at 40 hrs. But....
She has been under contract for the past 18 months for a monetary value to be owed unless X number of years is commmitted to the employer. Here's the tricky part. The contract says "...in the event that you terminate your employment ahead of the payback schedule [X number of years], or fail to fulfill the employment commitment at any time prior to the expiration of the progam, you agree to immediately refund the prorated portion that has not expired from your payback schedule."
The contract does not say anything else in regards to anything relevant. She has also signed a commitment letter of no time commitment but with a wage listed as $X/annually and benefit were listed as well. This was signed before her initial employment two years ago.
Employer tells her she is required to work the X number of years and that the partime/fulltime does not effect it either way. And that is in her benefit...
They are pretty much forcing her to quit and therefore terminate her employment because pay will be almost half of what it was annually.
My questions are:
1) Does the reduction void the contract?
2) Is this a legal reduction since there is a contract. She would not have signed it if she knew there was a possibility of losing her pay, hours, and benefits. We do realize WV is "at-will" employment.
3) If she were to leave, does she still owe the prorated amount.
4) They terminated her fulltime position, so does that count as a termination and therefore void the contract?
Also, the notification of reduction was made about one week after the commitment started.
My wife was recently reduced from salaried exempt with benefits to part-time, hourly, non-exempt (or even still exempt, not really sure) with reduced hours and no benefits. I know that part is legal. The hourly rate was what she was making as a salary employee at 40 hrs. But....
She has been under contract for the past 18 months for a monetary value to be owed unless X number of years is commmitted to the employer. Here's the tricky part. The contract says "...in the event that you terminate your employment ahead of the payback schedule [X number of years], or fail to fulfill the employment commitment at any time prior to the expiration of the progam, you agree to immediately refund the prorated portion that has not expired from your payback schedule."
The contract does not say anything else in regards to anything relevant. She has also signed a commitment letter of no time commitment but with a wage listed as $X/annually and benefit were listed as well. This was signed before her initial employment two years ago.
Employer tells her she is required to work the X number of years and that the partime/fulltime does not effect it either way. And that is in her benefit...

My questions are:
1) Does the reduction void the contract?
2) Is this a legal reduction since there is a contract. She would not have signed it if she knew there was a possibility of losing her pay, hours, and benefits. We do realize WV is "at-will" employment.
3) If she were to leave, does she still owe the prorated amount.
4) They terminated her fulltime position, so does that count as a termination and therefore void the contract?
Also, the notification of reduction was made about one week after the commitment started.
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