Legal Question in Business Law in Virginia
Employees terminating contracts
My employer has just given me an updated employment agreement. My old agreement stated that either party could terminate employment immediately at any time for any reason. The new contract I received states that the contract runs from Jan. 1, 2003 until December 31, 2004, and is renewed yearly at the agreement of both parties. It provides several provisions on which the employer can terminate me immediately, but there are no provisions for me quitting, including the absence of a statement of how much time is required if I was to give notice. If a contract is said to last for a year period of time, does this mean that the terms are effective for one year only, or does it also mean I am bound to service for that time period? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Employees terminating contracts
Bearing in mind that I have not read the contract, if you are contracting to provide services for a year and there is no provision for you to cancel, then you are obligating yourself to work for a full year. Now, there is no slavery in America, but you can be financially responsible for the consequences of not continuing to work out the full year. If you breached that agreement, they could hold you responsible for any increased costs resulting. (That is, they would no longer be paying you, so they haven't lost anything there. But if they had to pay someone else more, they could hold you responsible for the difference.)
However, this is HIGHLY dependent upon and sensitive to the exact wording of the contract. While the answer to your question is, theoretically yes, you could be responsible, it is hard to know the effect of your particular contract without studying it.
I would also note that in order to replace an existing contract with a new one, the employer would need to give you something more than you are getting now. One cannot simply present a new contract when there already is an existing contract, unless they are paying you more or giving your more job security (which maybe they are, although the job security could be illusory).
Re: Employees terminating contracts
Now I haven't read the contract either, and I haven't done any legal research, but it seems to me that if they specify a term, it cuts both ways, if they terminate you before the term ends you might well be able to claim your salary for the remainder of the term.
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