Leaving recruitment agency - Can I ?

[Dom1971]

Hi All,

Just a newbie - but love the site.

Here is a summary of my situation.

About 5 years ago, I got a call from a recruitment agent who had a copy of my CV.(I have never met him spoken to him before)
An interview was set up with a clientCo for the role of Financial controller on a rate of some £32 / hour . Nothing else was mentioned but I seem to remember that a month or so later a terms and conditions pack arrived.

For the next 2 yearss I didn't have any contact with the recruitment company apart from the obvious telephone calls when they didn't pay me correctly.

After this 2 year period, clientCo wanted me to go perm - I didn't and they found a perm replacement. I then managed to convince them that I could do more of a systems role, which they agreed. I negotiated directly with the client and then told the agency what I had done and that I was setting up a limited company for them to pay me through. The new rate I had agreed with clientCo was £400 per day.

The recruitment agent then charged the clientCo £465 / day. I was a bit annoyed by this seeing as I had done all the work, negotiation etc, and expressed this to someone in the recruitment agency who agreed that they would lower their margin to (from memory) 10% giving me an extra £20 per day.

I didn't receive any paperwork / contract for this new role or rate.

2 years on (ie after approx 4 1/2 years) I have again negotiated myself a new rate (£470 / day) ...and the agent informed after this has been concluded ....but this time the agent says that they are reverting to their old margin and are charging clientco £530 per day.

Now I am slightly hacked off by this - what can I do. My boss has mentioned that he is happy to back me to go on as a direct contractor for £530 per day. HR (some VERY incompetent people technically) seem to think that they can't break the contract with the recruitment company.

Who is right and how do I get to leave this agency ? My feeling is that they have made over £55,000 off me ...for 1 phone call in the beginning.I got the new position and the new rates myself and I don't seem to have a contract (!?)

Help and views appreciated

[DodgyAgent]

Hi All,

Just a newbie - but love the site.

Here is a summary of my situation.

About 5 years ago, I got a call from a recruitment agent who had a copy of my CV.(I have never met him spoken to him before)
An interview was set up with a clientCo for the role of Financial controller on a rate of some £32 / hour . Nothing else was mentioned but I seem to remember that a month or so later a terms and conditions pack arrived.

For the next 2 yearss I didn't have any contact with the recruitment company apart from the obvious telephone calls when they didn't pay me correctly.

After this 2 year period, clientCo wanted me to go perm - I didn't and they found a perm replacement. I then managed to convince them that I could do more of a systems role, which they agreed. I negotiated directly with the client and then told the agency what I had done and that I was setting up a limited company for them to pay me through. The new rate I had agreed with clientCo was £400 per day.

The recruitment agent then charged the clientCo £465 / day. I was a bit annoyed by this seeing as I had done all the work, negotiation etc, and expressed this to someone in the recruitment agency who agreed that they would lower their margin to (from memory) 10% giving me an extra £20 per day.

I didn't receive any paperwork / contract for this new role or rate.

2 years on (ie after approx 4 1/2 years) I have again negotiated myself a new rate (£470 / day) ...and the agent informed after this has been concluded ....but this time the agent says that they are reverting to their old margin and are charging clientco £530 per day.

Now I am slightly hacked off by this - what can I do. My boss has mentioned that he is happy to back me to go on as a direct contractor for £530 per day. HR (some VERY incompetent people technically) seem to think that they can't break the contract with the recruitment company.

Who is right and how do I get to leave this agency ? My feeling is that they have made over £55,000 off me ...for 1 phone call in the beginning.I got the new position and the new rates myself and I don't seem to have a contract (!?)

Help and views appreciated

I'll do it for £520 a day AND buy you lunch

[Dom1971]

If you're serious then I'm seriously tempted...what is the legal position (if any) with the old agency ?

[ratewhore]

I'll do it for £520 a day AND buy you lunch

[Dom1971]

Any more offers out there .....on a more serious note (thanks for the offer but I think you may be taking the proverbial).....can I get out of this "contract" ?

[YHB]

Any more offers out there .....on a more serious note (thanks for the offer but I think you may be taking the proverbial).....can I get out of this "contract" ?

If the new role is tottally different and no contract in place than up in the air- see legal advice from a specialist eg http://www.egos.co.uk/

Or if you ddnt opt out then you are opted in, this means if you take a two month gap between contracts eg resign then return then they cant do anything as legally can only lock you in for two months- try bluffing to agent that client is happy for you to take these two months off so take or leave it (verbally rather than email)

[Dom1971]

Thanks for the advice.

One other thing that has been mentioned by our HR team is that they seem to think that they won't be able to hire me / my company in the future without paying comission to the recruitment agent.

Would I be right in saying that this would be unenforceable if I went with another agent. / or contracted directly between clientco and my Limited company ?

The reason I want to ge this right is that I think I can get my rate upto £650 a day and also do some more lucrative application coding work on a fixed price...for a specific project I want to make sure that non of this (especially the coding project) gets caught by and charged by the recruitment agent.

Are there any rules that say that after 5 years I can simply revoke the contract ?

[YHB]

Thanks for the advice.

One other thing that has been mentioned by our HR team is that they seem to think that they won't be able to hire me / my company in the future without paying comission to the recruitment agent.

Would I be right in saying that this would be unenforceable if I went with another agent. / or contracted directly between clientco and my Limited company ?

The reason I want to ge this right is that I think I can get my rate upto £650 a day and also do some more lucrative application coding work on a fixed price...for a specific project I want to make sure that non of this (especially the coding project) gets caught by and charged by the recruitment agent.

Are there any rules that say that after 5 years I can simply revoke the contract ?

5 years? lot less. ask a lawyer as per my post earlier, if you are 'opted in' then 2 months (happens by default so likely are), again you need to check your contracts that you signed- not everything is enforceable, the put it in to scare u later. Google 'restraint of trade' for background of the principles.


2) Refuse to sign, right up to last minute or more eg advise the empooyer off the record and dont turn up for work untill they give in and they remove the clause. They most likely will take the income on offer on this contract than lose out totally. That way even if they make money now, you are free.

But make sure they dont know thats what your doing, just say you have decided to find another role.

[Dom1971]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated

Not sure it's relevant but I don't really think there is a contract as such. I never saw / heard of or discussed one before getting the role.

I got a pack some time after I started (a month perhaps) but didn't sign anything and this was to do with me personally under the old financial controller role.

Now I am a limited company, doing different stuff and with a daily instead of hourly rate which I negotiated myself.

It may be that I don't have a contract at all ! - certainly I have never signed anything, or agreed verbally to anything.

Has anyone else had this problem ?