Strange Clause in Employment Contract Concerning Leaving Job

Question

My teenager has applied for a tutoring job at a local after-school tutoring center and there is the following clause in her employment contract:

If you decide to discontinue after your term is over, you need to provide a referral and train him or her before you leave.

Has anyone ever seen an employment clause like this before? Is it even legal? We live in the state of California.

Edit (P.S.: Actually, I may have been incorrect in stating that this requirement was part of an "employment contract" since there is no place for the prospective employee to sign and date their acceptance of all of the clauses at the bottom of the page. My daughter says that the clauses are actually stated to be "rules" for employees.)

Answer 1

Contracts can say all sorts of unenforceable things, you provided an example of one of them. A person cannot be compelled to stay and work somewhere they no longer wish to work.

At the risk of getting my wrist slapped for straying too far into the land of opinion, a clause like this is likely intended to take advantage of naive teenagers who will provide free employment referrals because they think they have to.

Answer 2

Has anyone ever seen an employment clause like this before? Is it even legal?

The clause is lawful. However, its enforceability can be forfeited unless (1) the employer commits to hire whoever your daughter's referral is, or (2) the contract outlines clearly enough how to proceed in the event that the proposed replacement is unacceptable to the employer.

The clause is not to be construed as suppressing your daughter's statutory right to terminate at will her employment (CA Labor Code §2922) or to perform training for free. Instead, the clause essentially requires your daughter to plan ahead so that the employer has a replacement by the time her resignation becomes effective (hence the contract language "before you leave").

The employer's rejection of the referral would forfeit its entitlement insofar as it hinders the transition your daughter is or will be planning for the company. To preclude forfeiture in this scenario, the employer would have the difficult task of proving that --in doing the referral and/or training-- your daughter violated the covenant of good faith and fair dealing that is implied in every contract.

In the alternative, the contract would need to include language that reasonably informs your daughter about the constraints applicable to the referral & training process. The constraints themselves have to be reasonable. For instance, your daughter cannot be asked to provide a referral whose experience or qualifications exceed your daughter's.

Lastly, neither the lawfulness of a clause nor its enforceability precludes your daughter's freedom to propose or require different terms in the contract. In some contexts, negotiations are easier before signing a contract whereas in others an amendment is more practical.