My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Pennsylvania
Last year, my employer offered to pay my tuition costs for a non-degree program at a local tech school. The program cost ~$4000 and ran from September 2017 to April 2018. Per their policy, my employer would only cover up to $2000 a year. To prevent me from having to cover the remainder, my manager set up a payment plan with the school so that $2000 would be paid up front and the other $2000 at the beginning of January 2018.
I had several conversations with my manager while this whole arrangement was being set-up, and he mentioned that I may have to sign an agreement to stay with the company for a year or two, or else I would have to repay the full amount of the tuition. Nothing ever came of it. My employer paid for the course, and I completed it in April 2018. I was never asked to sign any type of agreement, and I was never contacted by HR about the matter.
Recently, my manager caught wind that I was actively job-searching because I showed up on the radar of one of the contractors we do business with, and they let him know about it (they described it as a "professional courtesy"). He actually took it pretty well and wanted to put me in for a pay increase to try to get me to stick around.
He told me that HR flat-out said no to any pay increase and threatened to come after me for the tuition money if I left, citing some clause in the employee handbook.
I applied to a significantly higher-paying job a few days ago that I have a decent shot at getting, so I decided to dig through the employee handbook. All I found was this short section outlining the education assistance program:
[Company Name] will assist team members with the tuition cost of courses in our field of business for undergraduate associate and baccalaureate degree programs, certification programs, and job-related adult education courses and seminars. The annual assistance is $2,000, not including books, fees, grants, and scholarships. Your Manager or immediate Supervisor can provide you with additional details, information, and requirements.
The only thing I could find relating to reimbursement of this money to the company was buried in the Human Resources Handbook:
Repayment Conditions
Is this legally binding? I'm a bit skeptical since, on the very first page of this document, it explicitly says "neither these documents nor their contents are a contract between [Company Name] and yourself." And, as I've said, I've signed no written agreement, and I certainly never agreed verbally to these specific terms.
If it is binding, though, and I'm reading this correctly, it looks like the one-year period begins the day that the check is written. If that's the case, then I've already fulfilled my one-year obligation for the first $2000 payment in September 2017, correct? Also, since it says that the repayment amount is to be prorated, I'd then only have to pay back a a quarter of the second payment, since it has been 9 months since then. Or am I completely misunderstanding this?
Last year, my employer offered to pay my tuition costs for a non-degree program at a local tech school. The program cost ~$4000 and ran from September 2017 to April 2018. Per their policy, my employer would only cover up to $2000 a year. To prevent me from having to cover the remainder, my manager set up a payment plan with the school so that $2000 would be paid up front and the other $2000 at the beginning of January 2018.
I had several conversations with my manager while this whole arrangement was being set-up, and he mentioned that I may have to sign an agreement to stay with the company for a year or two, or else I would have to repay the full amount of the tuition. Nothing ever came of it. My employer paid for the course, and I completed it in April 2018. I was never asked to sign any type of agreement, and I was never contacted by HR about the matter.
Recently, my manager caught wind that I was actively job-searching because I showed up on the radar of one of the contractors we do business with, and they let him know about it (they described it as a "professional courtesy"). He actually took it pretty well and wanted to put me in for a pay increase to try to get me to stick around.
He told me that HR flat-out said no to any pay increase and threatened to come after me for the tuition money if I left, citing some clause in the employee handbook.
I applied to a significantly higher-paying job a few days ago that I have a decent shot at getting, so I decided to dig through the employee handbook. All I found was this short section outlining the education assistance program:
Quote:
[Company Name] will assist team members with the tuition cost of courses in our field of business for undergraduate associate and baccalaureate degree programs, certification programs, and job-related adult education courses and seminars. The annual assistance is $2,000, not including books, fees, grants, and scholarships. Your Manager or immediate Supervisor can provide you with additional details, information, and requirements.
The only thing I could find relating to reimbursement of this money to the company was buried in the Human Resources Handbook:
Quote:
Repayment Conditions
- Team members are required to repay for education assistance expenses within thirty (30) days if the following occurs:
- Team member receives a grade lower than "C" or a "fail"
- Team member withdraws from the class or fails to complete
- Team member voluntarily resigns from [Company Name] for any reason within one year of receiving assistance (will pay a prorated amount to [Company Name] deducted from payroll check or within 30 days)
Is this legally binding? I'm a bit skeptical since, on the very first page of this document, it explicitly says "neither these documents nor their contents are a contract between [Company Name] and yourself." And, as I've said, I've signed no written agreement, and I certainly never agreed verbally to these specific terms.
If it is binding, though, and I'm reading this correctly, it looks like the one-year period begins the day that the check is written. If that's the case, then I've already fulfilled my one-year obligation for the first $2000 payment in September 2017, correct? Also, since it says that the repayment amount is to be prorated, I'd then only have to pay back a a quarter of the second payment, since it has been 9 months since then. Or am I completely misunderstanding this?
Resignation: Can My Employer Make Me Repay Educational Assistance Costs if I Resign
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