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DuckeyD

Junior Member
Nevada

I interviewed for a reservation agent job for American Airlines on November 11th. I was offered the job, filled out paperwork, including w4’s ( 2’s ?) and was told I would be contacted in mid-December or early January with a start date. I did my drug test and fingerprinting the next day. Late December arrived and I emailed to ask if they knew the start date yet. I was told "additional start dates are still being determined at this point. Once a start date is finalized, we will reach out to confirm your start.

January 21st I got an email saying: “due to operational needs of the business, the position is no longer available and you will not be able to continue onboarding in order to start training, Your candidacy will be placed on hold and your offer for this position will remain valid for up to six months. We will contact you if the position becomes available within this timeframe so that you can continue onboarding and complete any necessary pre-employment steps. “

My initial letter from November 11th does state the following :

We are pleased to offer you the Reservation Agent position
Base salary…
Health Benefits…
Flight Priveleages…

“This offer of employment is contingent on your ability to meet the following requirements. These include, but are not limited to:
* fingerprinting,
* FAA drug screen,
*any additional pre-employment requirements,
*final review of completed application, including all documents,
*Successful completion of new hire training

All employment at American Airlines is on an “at will” basis, unless expressly agreed to otherwise. For this reason, this letter is not intended to and should not be considered as a basis for establishing any contract of employment.

We are pleased to have you as part of our Reservations team and look forward to you joining American Airlines…


So, my question is: Can I sue them for the amount of money I could have earned over the past 3 months of waiting for this job to come to fruition, based on the verbal contract that we had for employment?
I turned down other jobs to take this one and lost out on nearly 3 months of income and time wasted waiting in good faith for them to follow through on their end of the offer.
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Nevada

I interviewed for a reservation agent job for American Airlines on November 11th. I was offered the job, filled out paperwork, including w4’s ( 2’s ?) and was told I would be contacted in mid-December or early January with a start date. I did my drug test and fingerprinting the next day. Late December arrived and I emailed to ask if they knew the start date yet. I was told "additional start dates are still being determined at this point. Once a start date is finalized, we will reach out to confirm your start.

January 21st I got an email saying: “due to operational needs of the business, the position is no longer available and you will not be able to continue onboarding in order to start training, Your candidacy will be placed on hold and your offer for this position will remain valid for up to six months. We will contact you if the position becomes available within this timeframe so that you can continue onboarding and complete any necessary pre-employment steps. “

My initial letter from November 11th does state the following :

We are pleased to offer you the Reservation Agent position
Base salary…
Health Benefits…
Flight Priveleages…

“This offer of employment is contingent on your ability to meet the following requirements. These include, but are not limited to:
* fingerprinting,
* FAA drug screen,
*any additional pre-employment requirements,
*final review of completed application, including all documents,
*Successful completion of new hire training

All employment at American Airlines is on an “at will” basis, unless expressly agreed to otherwise. For this reason, this letter is not intended to and should not be considered as a basis for establishing any contract of employment.

We are pleased to have you as part of our Reservations team and look forward to you joining American Airlines…


So, my question is: Can I sue them for the amount of money I could have earned over the past 3 months of waiting for this job to come to fruition, based on the verbal contract that we had for employment?
I turned down other jobs to take this one and lost out on nearly 3 months of income and time wasted waiting in good faith for them to follow through on their end of the offer.

You did not have a verbal contract. The offer letter is clear that you shouldn't consider it to be a sure thing.
 

Chyvan

Member
I turned down other jobs to take this one and lost out on nearly 3 months of income and time wasted

Besides the above, you have a duty to mitigate damages. You should have taken the other jobs, and when AA was ready to have you actually start work, you'd have quit. It's the world we live in. If you have a job, and get an offer, be careful. If you don't have a job and get two or more offers, take them all. You just can't be sure anymore, and you have to hedge your bets, and if employers get ticked that employees are reneging at the last second, they'll start giving up front hiring bonus money to prove they are on the up and up.
 

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