Contracts

Bullet1

I apologise in advance for the length of this post. I have recently signed a contract that stated that if I left within a year I would have to pay back the"development fund" money that was given to me. This totalled £4000 spread over 2 and a half months. After this time the role was making me ill so I resigned my position. On the face of it I need to give them back the £4000. BUT

I have done over 400 hours work for them. They dictated where I worked and how I worked. I used their equipment(computer, software etc). I was not allowed to do any work in the same field for anyone else. I had to do work that wasn't directly of benefit to me(commission only). I did some deals that they will now get all of the commission for.

My problem is that I have 400 work for them and if I give the money back I would have earnt nothing for it. They have also benefitted from my deals and all of my time.

There has been a case recently(Pimlico) where a plumber in a similar position was counted as a worker rather than self employed and he was paid as well!!

I know that I signed the contract but I did not foresee this happening. They are now coming after me for the money which I don't have!!

Are there any legal eagles out there who can help with some advice.
Thanks

TBagpuss

Are you saying that you were self employed and they loaned you some development money which they now want back?
If you are argue that you were in fact an employee then you would still potentially have to pay back the loan, if you had a signed agreement to do so.
Were you paid for the 400 hours work you have done?

Brynsam

Bullet1 wrote: »

I apologise in advance for the length of this post. I have recently signed a contract that stated that if I left within a year I would have to pay back the"development fund" money that was given to me. This totalled £4000 spread over 2 and a half months. After this time the role was making me ill so I resigned my position. On the face of it I need to give them back the £4000. BUT

I have done over 400 hours work for them. They dictated where I worked and how I worked. I used their equipment(computer, software etc). I was not allowed to do any work in the same field for anyone else. I had to do work that wasn't directly of benefit to me(commission only). I did some deals that they will now get all of the commission for.

My problem is that I have 400 work for them and if I give the money back I would have earnt nothing for it. They have also benefitted from my deals and all of my time.

There has been a case recently(Pimlico) where a plumber in a similar position was counted as a worker rather than self employed and he was paid as well!!

I know that I signed the contract but I did not foresee this happening. They are now coming after me for the money which I don't have!!

Are there any legal eagles out there who can help with some advice.
Thanks

Without seeing the contract and knowing a lot more about this, it's impossible to give informed advice. The amount at stake is substantial, so asking a solicitor for a fixed fee interview (do a bit of ringing round and ask how much) could be money extremely well spent.

sangie595

Reading case law that doesn't apply is such a popular activity around here!

I agree, you need to see a solicitor, but I suspect that you will not like the advice. You knew exactly what you were signing up for in advance, the terms were very clear (as you state them here), and so even if you were an employee your "working for free" (which you didn't) is irrelevant - you agreed to repay the development fund and even employees would be bound by such an agreement.

You seem to think that entering into such an agreement and then not abiding by it is ok because you have a good reason. It isn't. The employer invested a very large amount of money in you, and all you had to do was work for them for one year. Why should your unwillingness to abide by the contact you enter into cost the employer £4.5k? How is your breach of contract their problem?

See a lawyer, but I suspect that what you'll be advised is that you must try to come to a repayment plan with them. Or else, for that amount of money, I'm pretty sure they'll go to court and you'll end up owing even more, plus have an impact on your credit score and possibly your credit rating for certain types of work.

Bullet1

No not a penny - I am not looking for financial gain but to do 10 weeks work without being paid a bean is surely not right whatever contract I may have signed.

Undervalued

sangie595 wrote: »

Reading case law that doesn't apply is such a popular activity around here!

Given that the OP appears to be new here I suspect that comment will be rather lost.

To be fair I don't think anybody replying to either of the threads has done that and the OP's post was to ask for clarification on whether what they had read may apply - which it doesn't.

Bullet1

I suspected that I didn't have a leg to stand on but if I give the £4000 back I would have worked for free as I wasn't paid any other money. I also secured a number of deals which Coincidentally produced around £4000 of income to the company which they will get. They did not invest any money apart from that.

Takeaway_Addict

if you were not being paid......when would you have been paid?

sangie595

Bullet1 wrote: »

I suspected that I didn't have a leg to stand on but if I give the £4000 back I would have worked for free as I wasn't paid any other money. I also secured a number of deals which Coincidentally produced around £4000 of income to the company which they will get. They did not invest any money apart from that.

They also didn't ask you to resign within the one year term. But I'm afraid that got really do need legal advice. Your "very good reasons" aren't relevant. It's enforceable or not. And we can't tell you much more than it probably is.

Marcon

It's anything but clear whether this could be enforceable. It may be, it may not - or you could be required to repay something less than the £4,000. I can only add to the previous suggestions that you get legal advice from someone who has seen the contract in full.