Credit, Reference and CRB Checks - Who's Responsibility is It ?

[TheVoiceOfReason]

Recently I was in the fortunate position of being offerred 2 contracts on the same day, unfortunately, both subject to pre-employment screening. This left me with the dilema, do I accept one, but run the risk that I might fail the screening and end up jobless or do I accept both, knowing full well that 3 weeks down the road, having passed all the checks, I am going to let one of the Clients down.

In the end I had no choice, other than to accept both and see what transpired. This went very much against my usual levels of professionalism, but what choice did I have? Part of me feels that as a contractor, I should accept this as part and parcel of the job and have reject one of the offers from the outset. Another part of me thinks that if the Client wants to introduced these enhanced checks, that we've done perfectly well without for the last 25 years I've freelanced, then they should run the risk of losing a potential contractor to another offer that comes along in the interim.

I'm not sure there is a right answer, so I'd be interested to know how others feel about this situation.

[AussieDigger]

Recently I was in the fortunate position of being offerred 2 contracts on the same day, unfortunately, both subject to pre-employment screening. This left me with the dilema, do I accept one, but run the risk that I might fail the screening and end up jobless or do I accept both, knowing full well that 3 weeks down the road, having passed all the checks, I am going to let one of the Clients down.

In the end I had no choice, other than to accept both and see what transpired. This went very much against my usual levels of professionalism, but what choice did I have? Part of me feels that as a contractor, I should accept this as part and parcel of the job and have reject one of the offers from the outset. Another part of me thinks that if the Client wants to introduced these enhanced checks, that we've done perfectly well without for the last 25 years I've freelanced, then they should run the risk of losing a potential contractor to another offer that comes along in the interim.

I'm not sure there is a right answer, so I'd be interested to know how others feel about this situation.

Under those circumstances, I would do the same. Whoever gets to the finish post first, wins.

I always tell clients with roles subject to screening that until the contract is signed, i'm on the market so its in their interests to get it done quickly.