My question involves business law in the state of: California
I have been working without a contract. I'm a sales rep for a computer services company. I answered a craigslist ad in Nevada. Went to training in Colorado. Came back home and started selling in Nevada. My situation changed and I had to move to California. The company was OK with the move since they didn't have a rep in the region.
When I went to California, they changed my commission structure (it got smaller). It wasn't much, and I didn't have much of a choice.
I've been working for 5 months in California. Since the commission change, I've been pushing to get a written agreement signed whenever it didn't seem like it would cause a problem. Now, they've finally given me a written agreement.
I reviewed it and they changed my commission structure again. It also says they won't give me my monthly stipend and they won't cover expenses (they've been reimbursing me for taking people out to lunch and a few times I've had to fly to northern california for customers and they paid for planes/hotel/food).
It also says that I have to submit jurisdiction to Colorado for any disputes, and gives me a FIVE year non-compete.
I looked up the law about this as much as google would allow. Apparently, California doesn't allow non-competes, and California has a set of requirements for sales representative agreements that this company doesn't follow. ( http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/di...738.10-1738.17 ) It doesn't meet most of the requirements listed in 1738.13, and 1738.14 looks like California has jurisdiction and I can't waive that.
I brought these issues up and told them I want an agreement that meets the law. They responded by telling me I have three days to sign the agreement they gave me or I'm fired.
I'm an independent contractor, but they pay my expenses, review my work progress daily, and come out to attend sales meetings with me. Lately they've been pushing to meet with customers privately - which is a problem for me because I don't know what promises they are making behind closed doors.
I have three really big deals coming to a head right now that will mean commission checks that are bigger than all the money I've made so far. I feel like they are doing this to try to fire me before these deals close and they have to pay me big commissions.
I have other problems with them. They are constantly late with paying me and the sales director has gotten verbally abusive - yelling at me and insulting me out of nowhere one day, and praising me for my good work the next.
I don't want to sign this thing, but I feel like I have no choice. I'm worried that I'll cave and sign it and they'll still fire me to avoid paying me.
Do I have to sign this contract? Do I have any recourse? What happens if they fire me before my customer pays on the big deals?

