Oral Agreement on Salary and Reduction Due to Budget Shortfall
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Question
My wife is a camp coordinator at Beit Yaakov School. For this purpose, she brought in two girls to be the actual coordinators and told them orally that they would each receive about 3000. Subsequently, the Lavi Association, which funds the camp, cut her budget, and as a result, she had to cut programs and reduce the salaries of other instructors, for whom she also did not set a clear price, and there was still a deficit. So she had to inform the coordinators (a week after the camp opened out of three weeks) that she was reducing their pay to 2500 each. That is, until now, it would be calculated at the rate of 3000, and from now on, it would be less, so in total, they would receive 2500. (By the way, she claims that they actually have nothing much to do at the camp, and they sit there a lot of time doing nothing and dealing with other things, so they are quite unnecessary). Meanwhile, my wife manages another camp for higher grades, and there she pays the coordinators 2000 each, and they actually work much harder than the first coordinators. After my wife informed them of the pay cut, one of the mothers called and said that according to Halacha, it is not certain that such a thing can be done... I would like to ask now, what is the law in such a case?
Answer
Hello
The answer of our teacher, Rabbi shlita
Since the employment was based on the association funding the camp, the coordinator is not obligated to pay more than what the association pays her.
Source
Instruction of our teacher, the Gaon, Rabbi Avraham Fried, shlita
Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat, Siman 331 and Siman 332.