Handcuff clause again

[tim123]

The point is to scare people into thinking it is a clause that is enforcible..

Yep, almost every company in every industry uses this tactic. The existance of a clause in a contract means nothing at all wrt its enforcability

tim

[jkoder]

Just because such a clause is in a contract doesn't mean it's enforceable. I am in a similar situation and I have just taken legal advice this morning, luckily in the country I am based you have to earn a certain amount in the last 12 months with the agency before you can qualify for this clause and I earned less than that amount.

I did some research before taking advice and it seems these clauses usually fail because they have too wide a scope.

In my case I was happy to work with agent but they tried to knock 30,000 Euro off my rate at the last minute, now they will end up with nothing and I will work direct.

[fzbucks]

At a recent meeting with senior management at ClientCo recently a somewhat "newbie" contractor asked why his contract had a Handcuff clause which prevented him working for the same ClientCo through another provider...

... although he didn't realise it was a handcuff clause, and was generally a bit inept! The reason he was asking is that ClientCo has a new favourite provider of "services" and some new projects they have been "given" sound interesting.

Anyway, interesting was ClientCo's CIO's reply: "Move, you work for yourself. They won't sue you - its not worth their effort."

Interesting point of view! Wonder if any single contractor has ever actually been successfully sued for breaking a Handcuff clause??

Me

[The Agents View]

If in doubt, either make the agent sign your terms (get your contracts from the PCG) - or make sure the agency is PCG approved - and has their contracts signed off by them.

And the handcuff clause is very much enforcable, but in the case of the NHS it should be clear that it is to protect the business from contractors being underhand (eg leaves Hampshire PCT and goes back to Hampshire PCT the day after) it should NOT say that you can't go back to work in another part of the NHS - that's just absurd.

Remember agencies are a business, and no business would ever let a client use them to do the donkey work, without being charged for it.

I had a really funny guy the other day, who I placed, and he thought I was going to charge the client £50 and walk away

[expat]

if you sign the contract you are beholden to it, if you don't then I guess you forgo the gig.

In my experience you guess wrongly. If a contractor won't sign an unreasonable handcuff clause (and I won't) then the agent will decide what he will do about that, which may or may not include not going further with that contractor; the contractor will then decide what to do about the agent's response. Forgoing the gig would usually be the right move: and blacklisting that agent. You don't need him, and you don't want him.

In my case it usually means that I will accept 6 months but no longer; and I will accept only a relatively close restriction to, essentially, the contract and team in question.

To put it another way, if you put me in at IBM in Brussels tomorrow, then you do not suddenly own my 5-year old IBM contacts across Germany. If you don't see that, I don't see you again.

[Old Greg]

Nobody works for or contracts with the NHS. The contract is with one of the statutory bodies - Trusts, Strategic Health Authorities etc. When I move to a new end client, I am free to go via any agency.