Bypassing Agency Agreement

[DodgyAgent]

Hello,

Contractor X has all been at Company X for over 2 years and has worked on 5+ internal projects and have had 5+ renewals.

Contracts have clause in stating

"consultant respects time and expense of agency in getting contract" etc etc
and will not work for company X direct for 12 months following end of contract..."

Consultant has maintained good will with company x through delivering quality service for the last 2 years...agency still only have the gig as company don't want to lose consultant..

Can this clause be enforced as it is obvious that apart from a phone call once every 4-6 months when renewal is due, printout of standard contract with (sometimes!) the correct details on it, payroll service, sometimes getting back to me after promising to chase an issue..??

Also, if the company will no longer do business with the agency but still wants to use my services can the agency enforce this clause and so prevent me from pursuing my business activities freely..?

thanks

You are using the old excuse of "what does the agency do for their money" argument to justify reneging on your contract. If you are saying that agencies should only earn their fee according to what they do (and how you meassure that would be interesting) then perhaps you would think it fair that contractors should pay all the agents who have done work on their behalf that has not resulted in a placement.

Just be honest and drop the pious bulls**t, you want to drop your agency because of your own personal greed.

[Emily]

Unenforceable!

I'm pretty sure it's not enforceable and coming from a recruiter background (not agency anymore - please don't hate me) 99.9% of agencies wouldn't enforce it, and in most cases, not even be aware of it.

The reason I believe it is not enforceable is because it restricts your right to work which voids all such clauses as this. For example I had a clause in my old contract which stated I couldn't work for a competitor within a 30 mile radius of the current office. It's all bull put there to scare you.