Over the summer I signed a contract with a public school corporation. This is my first year with this school corporation. In the contract it stated my salary. We're now 1.5 months into the school year, and the school notified me that my salary was being reduced because they finished the employment verification, and one of the years they counted as experience does not actually count. I thought they would have done employment verification before signing the contract, and that once the contract was signed, that was my salary, period. I'm a little baffled that they can come back now and change my salary.
I actually declined another offer based on signing the contract with the school in question. Without going into the details, reducing the salary of this position may have made me reconsider the position that I declined.
It is also worth noting that I did not misrepresent anything during the hiring process. They asked me for my experience, and I gave it to them. They never put any qualifications on what kind experience counted. Also, they never told me that the salary is pending employment verification or anything. We just signed the contract--I thought the salary was "locked in".
When they notified my of this, I wrote back explaining my frustration, and I let them know that my decision to accept this position was made based on the terms of the contract, and obviously the salary is one of the most important terms. I kindly asked them to attempt to keep my salary in line with the contract. They said the are "obligated" to correct the salary and issue a "corrected contract". Furthermore, they are adjusting my next pay to make up for over-payment the first few pay periods.
Part of me wants to just drop it and move on. But I am curious. If I were so inclined, would there be any legal recourse? Can they legally change the contract on me after both parties have signed and I'm 1.5 months into the school year?
