Training repayment agreement provisions (TRAPs),are a new form of “stay-or-pay” contract that indebts employees to their bosses. Often inserted into contracts without workers’ knowledge, these restrictive labor covenants turn employer-sponsored job training and education programs into conditional loans that must be paid back — sometimes at a premium — if employees leave before a set date.
Employers argue that these clauses are a way to recoup their investment in employees who decide to leave the company prematurely. But these contracts have come under fire from labor groups and regulators. Oftentimes, the amount of debt demanded under TRAP contracts — which can be upward of $50,000 — is far higher than the employer’s training costs.
SLAVERY, WITH EXTRA STEPS.
In the case with new graduate nurses their key training is done at their first job. It’s a bit more in line with apprentice to journeyman training than any other example I can think of. Training in which they have to make journeyman before they can work on their own.
The training is required, for everyone’s safety. Charging nurses for it via TRAP is new. Given the predatory nature of hospitals regarding employees it will likely become the status quo now, all the way to SCOTUS.
Nurses fresh out of school are are often massively underpaid, given shit hours, and unprepared for the realities of the job.
The turnover is mysteriously extremely high. This smells of some bullshit attempts at employee retention by force rather than fixing their broken system.