Tuition Reimbursement Upon Termination

[hawsbk]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Utah

While employed I participated in a tuition assistance program toward a graduate degree. The tuition assitance promissory note I signed in order to receive a reimbursement payment states, "Employee agrees that if he voluntarily terminates his employment within two years after the payment date, employee shall repay in full the total amount of tuition payment he recieved. Employee agrees that [employer] may set off by deduction or otherwise any amounts owed by employee persuant to this agreement from any amounts (including without limitation salary, severance, commissions, bonus, vacation, and expense reimbursements) owed by [employer] to employee."

I was terminated from employment for non-performance and therefore was involuntarily terminated. My former employer is applying my severance amount toward the amount I supposedly owe from the program.

According to this verbiage, do I legally owe tuition reimbursement amounts to the company if I was involuntarily terminated when the contract says voluntary termination?

 

[eerelations]

Because severance pay is not legally required, your former employer may very well be legally free to apply your severance pay to your tuition fee debt.

Another way your former employer could have done this would be to simply not offer you severance pay. This would definitely be legal.

 

[cbg]

This is a contractual matter, not a legal one. It's not a question of legal or illegal; it's a question of what does the contract provide.

I am unwilling to state with certainty what is and is not allowed by a contract I have not read in full. For all I know, there is language in a paragraph not quoted which modifies what's here. Or there might not be. There's no way to know.

So my suggestion would be to take the associated documentation to an attorney in your state for review.