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about employing contract´s

hello, i´m about to work in a small game studio, and i have a doubt about the contract they give me, in the contract there is a clausule that´s says if a get off the project in a period of 8 months (the time until the end of the project) i have to pay R$60.000 to the studio (its like $30.000 in dolars), i wanna know if this is common in the industry, becouse when i saw it, looks like crazy for me, anyone who works in the industry can give me a help with this? :poly122:

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  • adam
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    adam polycounter lvl 20
    So if you leave the company in the first 8 months you owe them $60...?
  • Zipfinator
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    Zipfinator polycounter lvl 9
    No... Adam, in Europe they use decimal in place of a comma. So he'd owe them $30,000 if he leaves in the first 8 months.

    Anyway is it just if you choose to leave or if they fire you? It sounds sort of shady either way.
  • Progg
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    Progg polycounter lvl 11
    Why should you ever have to pay a place of business if you leave or get fired? Sounds fishy to me.
  • adam
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    adam polycounter lvl 20
    The only time I've heard of this sort of thing is when Moving Bonuses are paid out. If you're giving $30,000 to spend on moving your house + family to the new city of work, but leave within X amount of months, they ask you to repay the moving expenses back to them.
  • hijak
    they prob do this, because if say you leave at 4 weeks, out of an 8 week project they will have to hire another worker, which will prob cost about 30 dollars in administration fee's. Its also a good way of discouraging your from jumping ship and going to another company who makes a better offer. But hell 30 is not a lot. Although i would possibly ask about that, see if they will remove it from the contract or if it is required. Companies in this state cant do that as far as i know, they can only have you pay for equipment etc. Also temp agencies can charge like this, for either completing a certain number of hours etc, a charge for using their service, but you having to pay for leaving the job would not be legal.
    Now they could be doing this on a breach of contract type thing. Like you signed up for 8 weeks but if you bail out then your gonna get charged.
    I would definitely ask for it. Hell maybe they pay you 30 bucks severance if you get let go early.

    edit: so yeah if that is 30,000 then they are insane, maybe that's legal there but here no company could get away with anything like that, id not sign it. that's reverse severance pay wtf.
  • diogom
    Thanks for all the help, im thinking they are crazy too o_O

    I have to pay $30.000 only if a give up the project, its becouse im being employed as another company (i will have to open my own company, so they not have to pay all the bills as they would if a was a employee), becouse its a company to company contract, there is this clausule about the $30.000

    OBS: (its 30.000 in dolars, im from Brazil, so this value to me would be like 60.000 in my currency)
  • diogom
    Zipfinator wrote: »
    No... Adam, in Europe they use decimal in place of a comma. So he'd owe them $30,000 if he leaves in the first 8 months.

    Anyway is it just if you choose to leave or if they fire you? It sounds sort of shady either way.

    if they fire me they have to pay nothing, nice ah? :shifty:
  • rooster
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    rooster mod
    that's absolutely mental. is that even legal?
  • Calabi
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    Calabi polycounter lvl 12
    That sounds really shady, I doubt that would be legal in the uk.

    Probably end up sacking you or folding their company and then charging you the 30k.
  • diogom
    here in Brazil this is legal, i can open a company in my name, and make a contract with this company that i have to work to them until the contract expires (8 mounths), a lot of people here work like this, it happens becouse the taxes we have to pay to employee a worker its too high, so this is a way to "cheat" the taxes, i lost a lot of rights as worker, but its not ilegal... it will be normal if there is not this insane clausule, basically if i accept this i have to stay until the end no matter what happen, i will have no way to get out! :thumbdown:
  • sprunghunt
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    sprunghunt polycounter
    It sounds ok to me. Maybe a bit harsh.

    They're saying that if you back out of the contract before you've finished the contracted period of time they're going to charge you for the damage you'll do to their project. The damage amount being $30,000

    You could say that they can pay you in monthly chunks and you'll repay them the amount they've paid you up till then with a reduced amount of damages.

    But really it's not a problem if they can only do this if you leave by yourself and aren't dismissed.
  • rooster
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    rooster mod
    uh, so you can't think of any circumstances where you'd be forced to leave a job?
    or is it fine for something out of your control to happen and then you also have to pay some bs charge..

    an employee leaving (either of their own free will or not) is a risk an employer takes, and trying to put the blame onto the workers is seriously lame. Something's wrong if one person leaving causes that much damage, that's why management is paid so much more than us- to deal with it.
  • [Deleted User]
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    [Deleted User] polycounter lvl 18
    Hopefully they don't try to pull some sort of bullshit where they fire you but then act like you quit and try to charge you 30 grand. Like if they finish the project a week early or something and then say you stopped working for them before the 8 months was up. That would be 100% shady.
  • aesir
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    aesir polycounter lvl 18
    i wouldn't sign it unless my signing bonus was over 30k.
  • Jeremy Wright
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    Jeremy Wright polycounter lvl 17
    aesir wrote: »
    i wouldn't sign it unless my signing bonus was over 30k.

    I agree. Unless they have fronted you some kind of signing bonus, I don't see how they are entitled to it. What if you start working there and everyone is an asshole, unprofessional, or the whole project is a mess (not saying they are or it will be, just as a possibility) and you decide to leave?

    Do what you think is right, but it sounds very shady to me.
  • diogom
    ya, i will not agree with that, thanks for the help!
  • Mark Dygert
    You can come work for me, I'll only charge $20,000.
    Oh and by the way, you're fired.
  • Rwolf
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    Rwolf polycounter lvl 18
    Where in funky town is this?
  • DrunkShaman
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    DrunkShaman polycounter lvl 15
    Vig wrote: »
    You can come work for me, I'll only charge $20,000.
    Oh and by the way, you're fired.

    Your claiming scam is cheaper than their claiming scam. Agreed!! *signs the contract*

    On Serious note: Thanks for the intel, I didnt know they charge people if they wish to leave within the contract range. All I figured was they will not give you your vacation pay if you just quit on them. <.<
  • Autocon
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    Autocon polycounter lvl 15
    I found out I have something similar to this in my contract. Apparently if I am fired, laid off, or quit I own my art lead a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Why was I so foolish to sign without thinking about the peanut butter ramifications of my actions.
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    I was just talking about peanut butter in the dead red redemption thread.
  • Slave_zero
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    Slave_zero polycounter lvl 8
    I think you made a good choice refusing the offer.

    It's best to be very carfull with those kinds of contracts. I'm not a expert in law but from what you said I think such a paragraph within a contract is likely to be judged obsolete in case of an lawsuit if you are hired as an employee.

    As you said you'd have to start your own business and it will be a company to company contract. I that case such a paragraph maybe ok. But think of all possible circumstances:
    What if you get sick and can't complete the job? How is such a case covered in your contract.

    I had a similar situation: A company having the complete staff made out of freelancers. Nobody was employed as a regular employee not even a core-team. Everyone was asked to get his own business started, having freelance-contracts but effectivly working a regular inhouse fulltime job. To me it sounded very shady. I checked the situation with tax accountant and my family. I refused the offer and I was lucky: a few moth later everyone in that company was laid off and some didn't even get their last months of payment.
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