Help needed to understand direct hiring situation? Stressed

[Mak9879]

Hi Gurus, seniors, moderators and juniors.

Hope you all are well.

Basically I m working at end client say Company C and they wanted to hire me directly on the basis of my performance and customer service in IT suppory lv2 role.

Currently I am working since recruitment IT agency Say Company A since 2021 and provided services to various projects untill I started working providing services to Company C (end client) from 2024.

At the end of December 2025, my contract ended and I was re-hired by Company C temporary for two months using their trusted partner agency say Company B from my Company A for same services to Comapny C.

In the meanwhile Company C started process to take me on board directly by advertising job, asking me to apply, interview, contract signing and joining date etc during the same temporay hired period and obtained NOC from Company B which they basically used as intermediary agency to get clearance fro my Company A (actual paye employer).

Now when I had conversation with my company regarding notice period and employment clearance. They had no knowledge about it and Comapny B is not replying to thier emails etc.

Now company asked me to give your 1 week notice to Company A and start the role from March 2026.

During interview with HR with Comapny C, I raised same concern that is everything sorted with my company regarding settlement period / one time fee as I was trained as IT engineer by them. HR came up to say that we don't know your company and we had dealing for temporary to permanent hire through our empanelled vendor Company B.

Our empanelled vendor Company B will update from their side and you update from your side to Comapny A thats your responsibility to inform them

My contract with Company A has always been temporary worker with no handcuff / restrictive clauses in my contract signed during training course with them back in 2021. But I don't have clue any handcuff clauses they had between Comapny A to Company B to Comapny C (end client) which might apply to me as I was put on the project by Company A.

I have struggling very hard to secure permanent job directly since 2 years to help myself to come out with Universal Credit system but there is always so much commission deduction between agencies.

Now, when everything was sorted, i have got another shock that Comapny A has no knowledge about this happening and Company B is not responding to Company A.

Could you please guide me what can I in this scenario to avoid any legal action from Company A towards me.

Waiting for your reply anxiously in the urgent matter.

Thanks

MAK

[NotAllThere]

Rather complicated for something that begins "Basically". Not terribly coherent I'm afraid.

But from what I've managed to glean and assuming were talking about temporary PAYE, not going through an umbrella company or through your own ltd company.

You have worked for A since 2021 and they trained you.
From 2024 to 2025, you provided services to C, but you were employed by A.
Then you started working for C again, but this time with B between C and A.
Now C want to take you on as an employee and have told you to give notice to A.

You have no handcuff clauses, so you're free to work for whomever you wish.

You are concerned that there might be handcuff clausing between A,B,C.

My opinion is that you can't do anything about that. It's a matter for A B and C to sort out between themselves. Give notice to A, start working for C and see what happens.

It is unlikely in the extreme that A will be able to take legal action against you.

[Dorkeaux]

Agree.

Some additional points that might apply:

Some companies have a contract whereby they train you up and in return you are indentured to them for a certain period.
Usually a year or two. I think it unlikely that if you were in this arrangement it would still apply after all this time.
But do you think it does? It would be in your contract. In big letters..

You might feel that you might have a moral obligation to Company A.
That's up to you, but if you have discharged your responsibility to them and made them some money I don't see how they could complain.

I would suggest you adhere to the termination clause in your contract with Company A, whatever that is.
NAT is correct, very unlikely to have any legal fallout in any case. But you should do what you agreed.

[Mak9879]

Thanks Dorkeaux and NotAllThere for your guidance in the matter.

And Company A since start of February, are not replying at all to my emails, calls and ignoring including HR/Payroll team to confirm the next steps for permanent hire. No reply at all.

Last week, I was able to get my line manager using reception deks number with trick and told him about the situation and he just mentioned Company B is not responding to our emails or calls.

I did ask HR/Payroll this week for employee Clearance and had no reply and have submitted notice period by mentioning the same that my emails and calls are being ignored.

I really don't know what is going to happen. Praying for good.

Thanks

Mak

[Protagoras]

I agree with the above responses, including that this is a rather convoluted description of the problem .

It's stated that the contract of employment is with Company A.

So I'd review the contract of employement and any other agreements made to establish whether there are any contractual impediments to taking full time employment with Company A's B2B client, Company C.
If there are any, I'd ask Company C to sort it out with their supply chain.

If there are commercial implications in the B2B contracts between the parties that's for Company C to get sorted.

[Mak9879]

Protagoras , Yes its so confusing, my contract doesn't have any handcuffs clauses but the assignment / project B2B i had done so far might had which Company A should update me at least but they are quiet.

Raised same concern with Company C, they said, our empanelled vendor Company B will update them that you will be starting with us permanent from their side and you do so as its your responsibility.

Thats it. Its seems really fishy and Company A possibly wants to cash out from situation. I think

[Protagoras]

One random thought. Household insurance often has a legal cover add-on which covers employment disputes. Do you have this - if so, it's a handy backstop if your employer starts to play games.

Given no restrictive clauses in your contracts I'm left wondering exactly why you're concerned and also why you'd be worried about your employer's B2B contracts. Is there some additional information that's driving this concern?

For example, are you aware of any other employees who's made this same move and who have had problems as a result?

[Mak9879]

I don't have any household insurance and don't know other employees.

Generally B2B contracts might have general handcuff clauses that applies to the employee working at the project/assignment which is my cause of concern at the moment.

[sadkingbilly]

I don't have any household insurance and don't know other employees.

Generally B2B contracts might have general handcuff clauses that applies to the employee working at the project/assignment which is my cause of concern at the moment.

'might have'? you don't have a copy of your employment contract??

[Protagoras]

'might have'? you don't have a copy of your employment contract??

This gets more confusing. If OP is an employee of Company A, with a Contract of Employment, then why would OP be concerned about 'might have' content of a supply chain B2B contract?

The only reason I can think of off hand is that if there is something in a supply chain B2B contract, then there's a risk that faced with pressure from Company A or Company B, Company C may terminate OP's employment rather than have a dispute?