Making A Sale During A Job

[soulstar42]

My question involves independent contractors in the state of: california

I work as a home theater installer for a company that has a contract with circuit city.
Initially I filled out an application and that was it. I was verbally given an initial set of rules on how I would be paid and my cut of the profit.

later on I was explained that we can buy and sell cables

We come across situations where a customer may need extra cables. (hdmi, optical, etc...) we sell cables at a discounted rate and we were told that we must report all sales, have all checks made out to our company and they take 20% of the profit.

and now I have gotten this in my email from the owner of the company

Hello everyone,


It has come to my attention that not all of you have kept the agreement of accurately reporting ALL UP SALES, that have taken place under the Employment of (Company name here) and Circuit City. This is unacceptable and cause for immediate termination of work agreement with (Company name here).

Any up-sales (cables or labor) sold at the time of installation, or in direct result of any work given to you by (Company name here), will be reported to (Worker name here) and checks will be made out to (Company name here). NO EXCEPTIONS. The checks will be turned in to (Worker name here) in a timely manner and will be posted to the following weeks payroll.

There will be random follow up calls to customers to make sure that everyone is accurately, and correctly following this procedure. Do not lose your job over this matter, do the right thing report all your up-sales accurately...


Please call (Worker name here) or myself for any clarification needed regarding this procedure or any procedure set forth by (Company name here).



Can they take a percentage of the sale of a product that was bought and sold by me. If I didn't have these item a lot of the jobs would not be able to be completed and the company would lose more money than they would gain off the sale. is this just greed? can they do this? i see there point if they didn't give me the work I wouldn't have made the sale any way. (confused)

[aaron]

Your question is poorly phrased. You are asking about a policy of your employer, an independent contractor for Circuit City, or you're asking about a Circuit City policy toward independent contractors?

If your question is whether your client can fire an independent contractor or decline to give an independent contractor any more work if he engages in private side-deals with its customers, after a clear warning that he cannot? Yes.

[soulstar42]

Circuit city is very clear on there rules. I am speaking only about my company.
Now you say If there was a clear warning then yes. but this was not part of any original agreements. there is actually a bunch of paper work that is supposed to be filled out that explains all about the company's cut of the action but extra sales was not in it.

So your saying as an IC the company I work for can change the rules as they go along? As long as they give me notice.