Reply to: Recruitment Agency Dispute - Misrepresentation and Misconduct

[Paralytic]

Were his lips moving? He's lying.

And I can guarantee, the agent thought he was doing nothing wrong in all this. He was trying to make sure you were on the hook, ready to join the moment the end client got approval. All that mattered to him was the money.

At least part of this sentence could also apply to most contractors...

[jmo21]

Thank you all for your advice and for not being too harsh on me.

Yes, I will take some valuable lessons learnt and adapt my behaviours going forward, as a result of this experience.

The more contractors I have spoken to, the more I have realised and understood that this behaviour is very common in recruitment however, it's not necessarily a hot topic.

Thank you again

Were his lips moving? He's lying.

And I can guarantee, the agent thought he was doing nothing wrong in all this. He was trying to make sure you were on the hook, ready to join the moment the end client got approval. All that mattered to him was the money.

[Carmel84]

Thank you all for your advice and for not being too harsh on me.

Yes, I will take some valuable lessons learnt and adapt my behaviours going forward, as a result of this experience.

The more contractors I have spoken to, the more I have realised and understood that this behaviour is very common in recruitment however, it's not necessarily a hot topic.

Thank you again

[quackhandle]

Do be aware that you could easily lose that incredibly fortunate 5 day payment chasing the agency down a rabbit hole.

Move on, look for new gigs.

qh

[SussexSeagull]

Take the 5 days and see if your old contract will take you back for any of the notice period.

[SimonMac]

What does your contract (with the new agency) say in terms of..... oh hang on I see a problem here.

Its unfortunate but an offer is worthless without a contract, lets look at it two ways.

The contract with your current gig which ends on the 31st October, I would imagine had come clause which allowed yo to give notice. Therefore all parties are abiding with the contract.

On the other hand, you have an email.........

Expensive lesson but well done for getting 5 days out of them, as an aside I would keep the contact details of he hiring manager and ping them a message saying when you are looking again please get in touch

[Paralytic]

I agree with others - take what you can and learn from it - don't quit an existing gig until a contract is signed. If you're the risky type, i'd be tempted to go back to the agency with a "make it 10 days payment and we'll forget about it", but only you can judge whether you want to take that risk.

One question, you original said (my bolding)

"The recruitment agency contact me a couple of days after my face to face interview to advise that their client wanted to offer me the role, in which I accepted formally via email."

and then another 8 times you referred to this "offer" you had accepted.

Did you actually have an offer, or were you just told an offer was on its way? What was it you actually "accepted"?

[NotAllThere]

I've approached a couple of solicitors however, there seems to be some confusion as to whether this is an 'employment' or 'Litigation/Civil' dispute

It's not employment. The only relationship covered by employment law is you as an employee of your own ltd. co. I'm surprised that you're confused about this.

Personally, I'd take the money offered and concentrate on getting a new contract. Litigation is too uncertain.

[GhostofTarbera]

Take the 5 days before even that is withdrawn then move on


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[KinooOrKinog]

What a dirty trick for the agency to do.

You could speak to a legal representative/company familiar with employment law?

What would be the point of that? She's not an employee..

[Plonitus]

Get a Second Legal Opinion

What a dirty trick for the agency to do.

You could speak to a legal representative/company familiar with employment law?

[Lance]

If the offered payment is ‘without prejudice’ that means that it is irrelevant to any legal case you may or may not have.
‘Without prejudice’ information cannot usually be submitted as evidence.
On that basis take the money.

I’d not bother chasing them further. It sounds like they’ve been very open and accept they fooked up.
Whereas you don’t really have much of a case for any legal pursuits.

[psychocandy]

Not unknown for agencies to do this. i.e. Jump the gun a bit and try and get everything sorted so that when the client says "OK go" they can say "sorted contractor starts monday" and the client is well impressed they are so efficient.

Of course, when it goes wrong like it did here then its not cool. Agency dont care those because its not their ongoing income they've screwed.

Lucky to get 5 days mind to be fair....

[ladymuck]

Sadly, there is no contract until you've received a contract and I would not give notice until then. Harsh lesson learned but well done on getting the 5 days payment.

[northernladuk]

Blimey. You got 5 days for nothing out of an agent. That's quite a result.

But that's the only good news. Be happy with it and get on applying for new gigs as there is nothing else for you here.

There will be a clause in your contract stating you get paid upon receipt of a signed time sheet I. E paid when you do work. You've not done any so not entitled to a penny I am afraid.

Many of us have something like this happen from time to time so remeber the golden rule. You have nothing until you are sitting at the clients desk/got your first invoice in.

Welcome to contracting. It does get better.