I was employed with company XYZ, in California, from May 2004 to Dec 2007, i resigned. I was an outside salesman and grew my territory nearly 50% during that time. Our pay structure was all commissioned based and that was fine with me as I was making great money. In April 2004 I was told with no warning that they were bringing in another person to become a manager in my territory and that my pay was to be cut from 20% commission rate to 4.5%. They presented me with a new compensation agreement in May 2007 but to be effective April 2007. I thought I was making full commission in April but was told that I would be under the new rates. I told them that isn't it illegal to change an employees pay/salary retro-actively and that I wasn't comfortable signing the new compensation contract and also back dating it. They told me that I did not have to sign it ... BUT... if you don't...(long pause) Then I said "if I don't then i probably would be let go" and the managers nodded their heads in agreement. I did not have any other job offers at the time and needed whatever income I could get so I eventually signed it but I crossed out their typed in dates of April and hand wrote May.
I finally found another job that pays me close to what I was making, it took that long to find something comparable. My question is, since I was "forced" to sign that does that make that current contract null and void and can the old pay structure be argued to be in effect? If so, I should be able to get "back pay" and get the difference between the old structure (20%) and the new (4.5%). That totals between $40,000 and $50,000 for the 9 month period.
Thanks in advance
Inhiding, CALIFORNIA

