My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Washington
I work in a sales role at my company. We are paid a base salary plus commissions on sales.
My employer now is requiring the sales team to sign a document that enrolls us in a sales training course that costs about $2000 for the year. The cost will be billed monthly to our bank/credits cards, and the form we must sign says we must pay the full $2000 regardless of our attendance to the course or our employment status(if we quit or are fired).
When I initially got hired, there was no mention of this training or the cost and my contract for employment does not include anything about this training.
My manager and the ceo has made it clear that this training is mandatory. They have not explicitly said "you will get fired if you don't do this", however they are requiring us to sign these forms and turn them in with only a few days of notice. If they do terminate anyone due to not signing up for this course, they will most likely use another excuse such as not meeting sales quotas, ect.
Also rumor has it that a cut of the the $2000 actually goes to our company. Our company bills us, takes their cut and then pays the sales training fee with the remainder. Again its a rumor so I'm not 100% sure on this bit, but I thought I'd add it on just in case.
Any advise on this would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks
Edit: Training is during work hours.

