Paying Debt That is Not Being Collected

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Long ago I was accepted into a scholarship program that would pay for your school and place you for a job in their company. When I graduated, there was a hiring freeze and the company did not have jobs (these jobs were not guaranteed in the contract). Technically I owe them the money back. I then worked for another company and have not paid any of the money back. This company has not made any attempts to collect the debt, has not sent me to creditors or anything like that. Is it sinful to not pay them back if they are not actively collecting this debt? My classmates that are in the same situation have not paid back this loan to my knowledge.
 
They haven’t contacted you… yet. Chances are, one day your luck will run out and they’ll reach out. If you know you owe the debt, the right thing to do would be to begin paying it back.
 
Have a lawyer look over the contract.

I worked for X company that had many college student employees and we had a management training program, it sounds like much like yours. We paid for part of their classes and each semester they had to get a C or better in that class. Students could opt to attend the program and if they graduated and completed everything they would be given a prime “internal hiring” position, meaning we had to hire them at our store or nearby ones before any outsiders. They promised to work for us for 2 years. There was some payback involved if they opted not to.

However, this was contingent on us having open positions. One of the young men I worked with came into a situation where there were no positions open for managment. He remained on that "internal hiring’ list for managment. Now, others were also added and got jobs but they were better fits and he was never chosen.

After 2 years the contract was done anyway and he chose to take his name off of the internal list. Years later he saw a position and applied and was basically a shoe-in.

I would take this to an employment lawyer to see what their end of the bargain is. My guess is that you will need to hold tight until the stipulated time of working is up and then both parties are freed from the contract. Meaning if they called you in that “under 2 years” that my company had you would have to be willing and ready to work.
 
They had contacted me about a potential interview, but I had opted to stay with the job I had already found. I never worked for them after I had graduated school. Not a bad idea to look at the contract again just to be sure.
 
guzinator said:
They had contacted me about a potential interview, but I had opted to stay with the job I had already found. I never worked for them after I had graduated school. Not a bad idea to look at the contract again just to be sure.
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Yeah, that complicates matters. That could appear to violate the contract. I would tread very, very carefully and get professional advice.
 
In the simplest of terms, they failed to hold up their end of the deal. Period. Morally, you are done with them.

As others said though, get a lawyer to see what steps if you should take. It may be a matter of just crossing your fingers for a few more years until a certain amount of time lapses; but check with a lawyer.
 
A valid debt continues to bind until it is formally discharged or is extinguished through legal prescription (which is not the same thing as a debt being time-barred in common law based legal systems).

However, I highly suspect that you are misinterpreting the contract and do not actually owe anything. As others have suggested, you should consult an attorney.
 
You’re obviously a good person, as evidenced by the fact that you’re asking this question. True, the jobs weren’t guaranteed, but looking at the contact, as others have said, will let you know if you had an escape clause (pun intended 😄), and lawyer will be able to help you understand if you technically DO owe the money back. As another user said, the interview offer complicates things.
My disclaimer at this point is that I’m merely speaking for myself and from my own experience: the fact that they have not made an effort to come after you suggests that they were taking a business risk by financing students and have decided to eat the loss. I assumed from your post that they haven’t come after the others either. Be aware, though, that as another user said, they may come after you at some point in the future, like maybe when your wife is pregnant with your second child, you’re out of work, and have a mortgage. Call a lawyer. In my own experience, they love to talk to you even for free just to see if they have a case and have never failed to give good advice even in a free phone call. Reiterating my disclaimer, I’d think that the letter of the contract would stipulate _n this case whether or not you’re morally obligated to pay it back.

Saint Joseph, you devoted your time at Nazareth to the work of a carpenter. It was the Will of God that you and your foster-Son should spend your days together in manual labor. What a beautiful example you set for the working classes!

It was especially for the poor, who compose the greater part of mankind, that Jesus came upon earth, for in the synagogue of Nazareth, He read the words of Isaiah and referred them to Himself: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor…” (Luke 4:18). It was God’s Will that you should be occupied with work common to poor people, that in this way Jesus Himself might ennoble it by inheriting it from you, His foster-father, and by freely embracing it. Thus our Lord teaches us that for the humbler class of workmen, He has in store His richest graces, provided they live content in the place God’s Providence has assigned them, and remain poor in spirit for He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3).

The kind of work to which you devoted your time in the workshop of Nazareth offered you many occasions of practicing humility. You were privileged to see each day the example of humility which Jesus practiced – a virtue most pleasing to Him. He chose for His earthly surroundings not the courts of princes nor the halls of the learned, but a little workshop of Nazareth. Here you shared for many years the humble and hidden toiling of the God-Man. What a touching example for the worker of today!
 
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While your hands were occupied with manual work, your mind was turned to God in prayer. From the Divine Master, who worked along with you, you learned to work in the presence of God in the spirit of prayer, for as He worked He adored His Father and recommended the welfare of the world to Him, Jesus also instructed you in the wonderful truths of grace and virtue, for you were in close contact with Him who said of Himself, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.”

As you were working at your trade, you were reminded of the greatness and majesty of God, who, as a most wise Architect, formed this vast universe with wonderful skill and limitless power.

The light of divine faith that filled your mind, did not grow dim when you saw Jesus working as a carpenter. You firmly believed that the saintly Youth working beside you was truly God’s own Son.

Saint Joseph, I thank God for your privilege of being able to work side by side with Jesus in the carpenter shop of Nazareth. As a token of your own gratitude to God, obtain for me the grace to respect the dignity of labor and ever to be content with the position in life, however lowly, in which it may please Divine Providence to place me. Teach me to work for God and with God in the spirit of humility and prayer, as you did, so that I may offer my toil in union with the sacrifice of Jesus in the Mass as a reparation for my sins, and gain rich merit for heaven.
 
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