Originally Posted by
JohnBurke
Far be it from me to tell you what to do, but I can tell you what I'd do. Leave.
I wouldn't have agreed to work for a company with such arrangements in the first place (but if I did, I'd stay and honor my agreement). In this case, if you had no verbal agreement, no written agreement, then were it me, I'd walk out the door and not look back.
Now you did say that you signed no agreement. Were you aware of their intent to collect training costs? Was there discussion, or any handshake, verbal agreement, discussion about, or hint or intimation of this?
Your wording suggests that your employer hit you out of the blue with this; no forewarning, no prior discussion. Is this the case, or did you know they'd be wanting reimbursement?
Your comments are very vague. What are "expenses related to pilot training?" They want you to pay back the hamburger they bought at lunch, or they want the cost of your training repaid in full? What expenses, and how do they relate? What level of training, and what did you actually receive from this training?
Be specific before we move on to discuss how this applies to you because that depends on your answer here.
1)Another company gave me a better job offer so I left.
2) The moment I told the company I was resigning due to having a better job offer, they immediately proceeded to tell me that I was going to be billed for pilot expenses (Look at #4) I was not expecting this, and if the company wanted to be reimbursed for pilot expenses, they should've made me sign a contract first day of indoc don't you think?
3)There was a discussion and I was aware of their intent to collect training costs if I decided to leave the company AFTER the initial checkride; that's when their contract kicks in. There was no handshake, verbal or written agreement after the discussion ended. I never made it to the checkride portion.
4)Basically, they are asking me to pay back hotel expenses, 2 hrs of flight time + instructor fees, and online training modules. No type rating required for this type of operation. The only thing that I received from this training was a basic 135 indoc.
Hope I'm being thorough and if you need more info just PM me.