Employer asking to work for free !!!

[Unregistered]

I just was hired and placed on an eligibility list at a school district for a classified position in Los Angeles, California. A school called me from the list and verbally made me a job offer which I accepted verbally. I was then told that the school was still creating the position in their budget and that I would have to wait for a official offer of employment from the HR office. By this time I had already declined future job interviews from over 30 schools that called retrieving my name off the eligibility list. This happened in Sept and it is now Nov. The school called me and told me it was okay to come in and work and they would take care of the "official" job offer to be made. I worked for about a week and a half and I recieved a call from the HR dept informing me that if an official offer of employment has not been made to me then the hours that I was working and the time I was signing in could not be accounted for and I would not get paid. I informed the school that I refused to work without being an "official employee" and the school got mad. They stated "... we will make sure you get paid... don't worry about it even though you are not and employee you will still get paid.." in other words they want me work without being an official emplyee. When I informed them that I was not comfortable with not working for free and that I would rather work when they have theri paperwork together they got mad and now they are blowing me off and are going to let the school year end without officially hiring and employing me.

In essence because I refused to work for free or on empty promises pay without a written contract for employment they don't want to hire me. Isn't there some sort of legal recourse for basically blackmail int he sense "work for us under illegal/against company policy terms or we won't hire you officially?

help so confused and frustrated

[Unregistered]

re: Employer asking to work for free !!!

Based on what you say here, you could file suit against them (or at least threaten to do so) in small claims court or in regular court--you could try to collect all of the costs and damages that you suffered relying on their various statements etc.