- Employer demands a contract worker to return crypto payment after a 700 percent price surge.
- Legal experts advise that the money should not be returned.
The recent crypto bull-run has generated controversy between an employer and employee over revisiting a canceled clause and taking undue advantage of a contract. According to the unidentified employee, he did business development work for the undisclosed tech company in the spring of 2020 as a contract worker.
The contract was meant to generate sales and it included a commission component. Some of the work included emailing people, generating proposals, cold calling, setting up meetings, and leading pitches to generate revenue. For all these, he agreed to bill hourly. As a startup, the company is yet to make its first revenue in sales.
Before the execution of the job, the CEO of the company stated emphatically that payment would be made in crypto. However, a clause was reserved in the contract that indicated that the company may elect to pay in USD. Before this contract, he had worked with the employer for several years and claims he has a tendency to change the conditions in a contract haphazardly.
The CEO struck out the clause allowing the company to revert to paying the employee in USD when the price takes a sudden nosedive.
After the completion of the work, he received the payment in crypto just as agreed in the contract, way back in August 2020. Fortunately, the crypto market embarked on a bull run that caused his crypto payment to rise by 700%.
“Bring back my crypto!”
Just a few days ago, he received an email from the CEO, and to his utmost surprise, he was asked to resubmit an invoice in USD for the August 2020 work. “Since you did not generate any revenue for the company and are not currently doing any follow-up work, please send back all of the crypto received in August 2020. You can invoice the company for the hours worked in USD, ” the boss stated.
This will make him receive an amount that is seven times less than the current value. This has left the employee in a state of confusion forcing him to seek advice from Moneyist, a platform that answers financial and ethical questions.
The advice to this employee was not to succumb to the demand of the employer but to strictly abide by the contract. Console Mattiacci Law firm in Philadelphia claims that an employee can never be fired for any different reason captured in the contract. Also, Eugene Lee, a labor lawyer based in Los Angeles stated that “a contract is a contract, so it is against the law for either the employer or the employee to breach the agreement.”
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