Published May 16, 2008
krymson
5 Posts
i am currently employed in one of the hospitals in florida. i am an immigrant and signed a contract to work for 3 years. we were told by the agency that in case we cannot continue working (be it involuntary or voluntarily) we are to pay the hospital on a prorated basis, the whole amount incurred during the immigration process which according to the admin is more or less $13,000. one of my colleagues (we were in the same agency) went to talk to the admin to settle money matters regarding the contract because she was planning to buy out her contract and move to a different state. but she was told that she should pay the whole amount if she left before serving 3 years. admin also told her that they do not know anything about our "contract" but which in truth, is actually with them. we were told by the agency that they sent all the copies of our contract to the hr department, but then when asked about our contracts, they just say to talk to the administration. i have been planning to leave this hospital because i am no longer comfortable working here. but because they do not honor our "contract", i'm not sure what to do next. i surely cannot pay the $13,000!!! i simply couldn't afford it. but what about the "prorated" stuff that is written on my contract? i signed my contract thinking that i could get out incase i can no longer work here. i have been here for two years now.
i'd appreciate all sound advice from you guys.
JBudd, MSN
3,836 Posts
We can't give legal advice here. I would consult a lawyer who specializes in labor contracts. Good luck!
UKPedsRN
109 Posts
Before calling an expensive lawyer try calling the Labour board first! I can't be certain that they can help, but it worth the cost of the phone call first.
I went to the US in the early eighties and the agency I went with were paying us $8.32 hr, when the hospital staff were being paid $15- 20 an hr. One brave nurse called the labour board and that led to the agency being shut down, and nurses let out of their contract
XB9S, BSN, MSN, EdD, RN, APN
1 Article; 3,017 Posts
Krymson, I am so sorry that you are having these problems with your employer but as one of the posters above has already mentioned it would be inappropriate for anyone here to offer any legal advice.
suzanne4, RN
26,410 Posts
Moved this thread to the Internaional Forum where it is more appropriate. And I want others to see what can happen.
Few questions for you, was the contract between you and the facility or you and the agency, and just stated where you would be working? Were you directly hired by the facility or the agency? Were the sginatures on the contract from the agency, or from the HR dept at the facility?
If the agency sent copies to HR, it usually means that you were petitioned thru the agency and then placed there. Normally, the contract would have come directly from the hospital' HR dept if you were being hired directly by them and not thru the agency.
You are actually quite lucky that this cancellation fee is only $13,000; there are quite a few now that range from $25,000 to actually about $45,000 and they demand repayment within ten days of leaving the contract or they will file against you in a court of law here. And one should never assume that they can leave a contract before it is over for whatever reason, it just does not happen that way. And you also need to take into account what the facility spent in training you, it is not just immigration costs. A bigger queston would be how long have you actually worked there, and why you are wishing to leave? You also need to be aware that the facility has the right to notify immigration that you did not complete the contract with them that was submitted for you to get your visa, and immigration therefore does have the capability to revoke a visa as well if they wished to.
There have been many that have walked from contracts and it is actually much harder to get a nurse placed from the Philippines as a direct hire because of this.
And another question would be:
What is actually written in your contract? Never assume anything if it is not written and in black and white. Verbal agreements in times like this do not remain valid, as well as the fact that the person at the agency usually has no authority to make any changes to anything.
hi suzanne!
to answer all your questions . the contract was from the agency and the copy that i got nobody from any of the facility's staff admin or hr signed the contract. though the facility can easily signed their copies if they want to, but the copy that the agency gave me didn't have any signatures from the facility.the paper that is being used is just the letterhead of the facility. the one that signed the contract was the head of the agency who recruited us and was notarized. we were not directly hired from the hospital.
been working here for 2 years now and wanting to leave coz most of my family , they are in another state. by the way i'm not the only one who wants to leave. i'm the voice in behalf of my collegues.
this is the content of the contract : if during the 36 months that i change employment status, voluntary or involuntary i will repay from my last day worked, money expended for my immigration. the money would include but not limited to fess paid on the nurse's behalf to the agency, and agree to pay the facility that portion of the cost in a prorated based on the percent of the employment time completed times the cost of the immigration.
i authorize the faclility to deduct the amount from my last paycheck , should that be insufficient i agree to pay this balance from the date of my termination.
anyway my colleague who went directly to the admin was it wrong ? or she should have go directly to the nurse recruiter or hr. she didn't bring any copy of her contract when she went to talk admin thinking that with their copy they can settle things. and most nurses from our agency already bought out their contract from another facility and we have the same contract and their facility honor them. i was just wondering why ours wasn't honored... most of us just want to settle things in the proper way coz were also grateful for the agency and the facility who brought us here.
thanks for all the reply!
Actually the agency cannot sign any contract for the facility as they do not work for them and are not on staff there. The contract should have been signed by an administrator of the hospital directly and this is how it is normally done.
The hospital can say that the agency does not have the authority to act on their behalf and they would be correct on this. No agency can ever sign a legally binding contract if the contract is between the hospital and the nurse on the behalf of the facility. Otherwise the hospital does not have to follow what is there since they did not sign it.
Sorry, but a bigger question to me is why did so many buy-out their contracts from this agency? This also makes it that much harder for a nurse from your country to get petitioned now for this very reason. Unfortunately, it has set a bad precedence here in the US because of actions like this. If there are extenuating circumstances, that is one thing, but then when you tell me that most have bought out their contracts, then there are other issues and those wishing to follow will not find it so easy any longer.
hi suzzane!
thanks for the reply. I was not wondering why mostly the nurses from our agency buy out contracts. For the fact that there are lots of issues that are not clear to us or the agency hid from us. And we only knew once we were deployed to each respective facility. We just keep silent on things and sometimes suffer in silence. There were things which was suppose to be intended for the nurse which we don't received and the facility was thinking that we received them. Nobody speak out thinking too that it can create chaos but good thing also there are other people that help us move on. But still we're grateful for what they have done to us.
But anyway, just want to let all my fellow nurses to pick their agency carefully and to read between the lines and ask for some advises. I am just grateful for this site coz you learn a lot of things. Again thank you!
Thanks for posting this, and is this same facility still hiring those from your agency? Suspect not. And if the facility was not aware of some things, then the agency was operating without approval from the hospital. And then the next question would be, who signed the petition? Were you petitioned by the hospital or the agency?
And if it was the hospital, but there are no signatures from them on anything, technically, your petition could be considered null and void since it did not contain the required signatures in the first place as well.
Please send me a pm with the name of the agency; and then perhaps we can offer some more help for you. But do not post it here.