contract-law california employment
What does leaving a company imply in legal speak? Does it mean termination or quitting a company?
<p>I specifically refer to this example:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You will receive a $***** relocation bonus. In the event that you
leave  within 12 months of your hire date, you will be
responsible for reimbursing the company for the entire bonus.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Let's say the employee took the money, moved and quit right after he moved. Then he's obligated to pay the employer back. This makes sense.</p>
<p>However say if he came worked for 9 or 10 months then was fired by the employer, based off of the language above is the employee obligated to pay?. Morally it looks like the employee was screwed over as he moved over for no reason and now has to pay for the move.</p>
<p>That clause doesn't look like it should apply to employees getting fired. Should it? How are such matters interpreted by the court?</p>
<p>This clause can allow employers to easily screw over employees after a week right? The employee moves, the employer decides to outsource his job to China then fires him within a week and then demands the relocation bonus back AFTER the person screwed himself over and moved. Who would sign such a contract like that? The intention of the clause is suppose to be there for protection of the company, but the technical language is being specifically interpreted to screw over the employee.</p>
<p>Anyway are there examples of cases similar to this?</p>
<p>The specific location of this is California.</p>

<p>Like most states in the US, there is in California no extra-contractual legal distinction between &quot;for cause&quot; and &quot;for the heck of it&quot; termination. It is possible that your contract has a specific term or tenure clause (&quot;cannot be fired without cause after such-and-such period&quot;), but in lieu of that, you can be fired at any time for any and no reason. The ordinary meaning of &quot;leave a job&quot; is that you quit, and the bonus is an incentive to you to stick with the job – it encourages you to make certain choices, like, not quitting. <em>Since</em> firing for cause (bad behavior of employee) is legally the same as firing to save money, the courts will not reward cynical misuse of the concept of retention bonus by allowing a company to fire you and claw back the bonus.</p>
