Postdoc position "on hold" due to covid-19

Question

I am currently in a job in the US (on STEM OPT). I had a postdoc offer from a large US university that was supposed to start April 16. I signed an offer letter for a two year contract. We were in the process of deciding which visa to apply for (H1/J1).

Today I got an email from the PI (HR copied) saying she would like to put the position on hold until things settle down. I asked for a clarification on what "on hold" meant and whether the offer letter was still valid. The HR replied this (PI copied):

As for the offer letter you signed (due to redacted’s current situation) please consider it void until future notice.

Professor [redacted] will contact you if you are still being considered for the position.

This is the last communication I had with the HR or the PI.

What does this mean? Since I have the signed offer, when things do settle down, is the university legally obligated to offer the position back to me before anyone else? Or the university is formally rescinding the offer and I should just move on? Can they do that?

EDIT: Some answers have asked about my eligibility to work in the US. For clarification: I’m in the US now, in my current status, I can work in the US till the end of May. If the university applied for an H1B (which is typically approved for non profit), I could stay in the US as long as I didn’t leave the country (in which case I would have to get a visa stamped). Things could have gotten more complicated with J1, so we did not discuss much about that.

Answer 1

A signed offer letter is normally a valid contract. Usually it is the only contract document. Only someone who has read the offer letter can give you a perfect answer to this question.

They have announced their intention to break the contract. That is illegal unless the offer letter says otherwise. Moving on is probably your best option.

There are two possibilities:

1. The university is unable to pay you, so they are forced to do something that could potentially cause them a lot of harm in the form of bad press or litigation.
2. They did this voluntarily or out of incompetence, in which case the university is a bad place to work and you are lucky not to be working there.

In either case, you should look for employment elsewhere.

Answer 2

This is not a forum for discussing legal questions, and in any case it seems to me that to try to pursue the matter through legal means would lead you down a rabbit hole from which your academic career would never emerge in one piece. As others have said in the comments, a postdoc position obtained through legal coercion is not one worth having.

Since you mentioned that the institution that made you the offer is a large university, so presumably one that values its reputation and that employs serious researchers who value their own reputation, perhaps the best course of action would be to apply pressure on the PI through your advisor and the advisor’s informal network in the research community. If some well-known colleagues of the PI’s write to the PI to tell him/her that it is unseemly and unprofessional to rescind a postdoc offer at the last minute based on external circumstances, however grim, perhaps he or she will reconsider.

While you are pursuing this route, it’s also good not to assume anything and to keep looking at all your options. People are in panic mode right now and it’s entirely possible that the PI will be unwilling or unable to re-extend the offer in the next few months, and possibly not after that as well.

It’s a tough position to be in. Everyone’s suffering right now but beginning academics like you are suffering more than most of us. Good luck!

Answer 3

They seem to claim that they aren't obligated, but that may not be a valid claim. But only a (local) lawyer can answer definitively. It might be worth pressing them outside the legal system, pointing to the letter. But a signed offer letter may be considered differently from a signed contract.

There might be some emergency legislation that permits this or they might just be hoping you won't press it.

But you can, at least ask why they think rescinding an offer is a valid action.

Answer 4

Contrary to other answers I am not sure whether the university actually intends to act as badly for you as this letter looks. You where supposed to start in the middle of April and that is not going to happen. The university also doesn't know right now whether you could start in the middle of June instead or whether the situation will last for years so they won't make commit to anything timewise. But I am not sure whether they actually meant to say 'we are not giving you the job, period'. Suppose by June the Corona situation is mostly over and life is mostly back to normal. It seems quite reasonable to me that in such a situation the university would still honor its promise and have you start in say mid July. I would try to talk to the professor, preferably by phone, and ask him what he thinks. Don't expect any promises but a general intent what he wants to happen. Maybe things are not as dire as they seem.

Answer 5

Surely this is a case of force majeure. The university made the offer in good faith but circumstances outside its control mean it cannot proceed with this offer.

America, like many other countries, has closed its borders. If you are an American citizen, you have an absolute right of return if you can find a ship or a plane to take you there. America is not issuing new visas to non-Americans. The university does not know when American will open its borders. It could be weeks or months or even years before international travel becomes the norm again. I doubt "years" is very likely but "months" looks very feasible. What do you expect the university to do?

With the clarification that you are already in the US, your problem changes. I had read your original post to mean that you were applying for admission to the States.

Edit following clarification

It is not clear from the latest version of your post if you now know what "redacted’s current situation" is. If the university has been told that no visa application for you will be considered for the foreseeable future then it is still a case of force majeure.

As I understand it, "redacted’s current situation" means "Professor X’s current situation". This implies it is not about you but about Professor X. If, for example, Professor X is being investigated over some allegations, then HR's reluctance to give a clear explanation would become understandable. Or perhaps Professor X has lost a grant and can no longer offer the position you accepted.

Have you tried for a better explanation since HR's letter? Perhaps a phone call would help. They may be willing to tell you what they cannot put in writing.

Answer 6

My personal take is to try to salvage something from this situation. I think, and as others answers here conveyed, that the university simply won't pay you right now if it can't. I would reply saying I understand the touch circumstances and their need to postpone the start of your employment. Suggest to postpone your start-date in the contract to June so that you guys can talk when the situation is more clear.

Best case: they agree and you can start then or at least be where we are now with a less panicked world.

So-so case: they may say they'd happily reconsider comes summer, in which case you have an email chain to go back to.

Worst case: no worse than now..