Tuition Reimbursement Obligation-No Agreement

[kraekerr715]

What is the name of your state? Colorado

A couple months ago my employer verbally agreed to give me money for school tuition. She said she would send me a check for 25% of the tuition, upfront. She mailed me the check, I deposited it, and I paid the school the 25% deposit. Yesterday, I put in my two weeks notice because I got a new job offer. My company has no tuition reimbursement policy, no written contract, and I did not sign anything. I wasn't even given a verbal stipulation that I had to work here for a set amount of time if they gave me the money. Now, they are threatening to garnish my wages, and telling me I have to pay them the full amount before my two weeks are up. Can they do this? Am I obligated to repay them?

 

[cbg]

The likelihood is that they cannot require you to repay it if there was no written agreement. However, I can easily understand why they're making the attempt.

Employers don't generally agree to pay college tuition out of the goodness of their hearts. They expect the employee to stay around long enough for them to get some value out of their investment in the employee. Even though they had no formal tuition reimbursement policy, they thought enough of you to want to invest in your education. And before you even take the courses, you're off to greener pastures. I can understand that they feel you've cheated them.

 

[kraekerr715]

Ok, so I felt guilty and decided ot let my employer know that I would request a refund from the school and when the refund came in, I would give them back the money. Well, I just found out that the school will not refund the money. I'm not sure where I should go from here. It's $1700. Can they withhold my paycheck? Can they make me repay them?

 

[Beth3]

Can they withhold my paycheck? No.

Can they make me repay them? Only if they sue you in small claims court and a judge rules in the employer's favor which seems highly unlikely since there was no prior agreement that you would repay the tuition monies if you left.