the big agency battle

[engineer]

obsolete

[ASB]

In a civil case, if your defence against a libel suit is that what you wrote is true, the onus is on you to prove that it is true: be sure that you can. Anyway, the agency may reckong that the potential damage from your site is big enough that it is worth paying a lawyer to hassle you (not that I am suggesting etc), which will end up costing you money.

A word from their solicitor to your hosting company might be quite effective too.

The liability is joint and several, thus the hosting company is vulnerable.

Truth is an absolute defence in libel - but this not stop the statement being defamatory. This means that even if true there is still the possibility of redress (though justification may become a defence to this).

[expat]

I believe that you can only be guilty of libel and damaging a company's revenue if what you say is false.

In a civil case, if your defence against a libel suit is that what you wrote is true, the onus is on you to prove that it is true: be sure that you can. Anyway, the agency may reckong that the potential damage from your site is big enough that it is worth paying a lawyer to hassle you (not that I am suggesting etc), which will end up costing you money.

A word from their solicitor to your hosting company might be quite effective too.

[TheBigYinJames]

You will have legal trouble if you try to publish ratings of agencies. Sites have been created where contractors can share opinions. Some agencies of course did not like what was said about them and took legal action to close the sites down. Remember that what you want to say about the really bad agencies is likely to cost them a lot if it has the effect that you want: your are then an enemy.

I believe that you can only be guilty of libel and damaging a company's revenue if what you say is false.

[expat]

You will have legal trouble if you try to publish ratings of agencies. Sites have been created where contractors can share opinions. Some agencies of course did not like what was said about them and took legal action to close the sites down. Remember that what you want to say about the really bad agencies is likely to cost them a lot if it has the effect that you want: your are then an enemy.

We could try these:
Make notes to yourself about agencies you don't like, and why.
Pass on this information to other contractors in informal conversations.
Create private bulletin boards by invitation only (no agents), and discuss on there.
Review agencies on online review sites like Ciao. Has anybody tried this?

[engineer]

removed

[expat]

I've stopped even talking to K2 Germany because they want me to sign an undertaking, not only that I will not go for that opening via anybody else, but also that if they offer it, I will take it. I refuse to do that because interviewing is a 2-way process. (In fairness I'll say that K2 London say that's OTT and they don't do it).

I also always change the handcuff clause to something reasonable: I've had 5 contracts in the last 8 years with IBM, in 3 countries. If an agency thinks that after 1 new intro, all of IBM belongs to them, they are crazy. I'll sign for the current project, team, and contract period, no more.

I am coming round to Zathras's view, that even for a single deal, you should only agree exclusivity on condition that it gets you into the deal, not if all it does is keep you out of the deal (which I think is the OP's problem, and probably more prevalent than we think).

And I'd add agreement with ratewhore: If Agency A phoned me first but we can't agree on a deal, why shouldn't I then turn to Agency B?

The OP does have a problem though, if all agencies insist on sticking to advance agreement on exclusivity. It is indeed making a shortage of engineers look like a glut, when it's only really a glut of agents. The only hope is to refuse. Make a deal with the agent: 2 weeks and a direct contact with the client, for example, or the deal expires.

[ratewhore]

Anything you sign before seeing the contract must be 'subject to contract'. Whether you have to add that amendment yourself doesn't matter as long as it is added.

Just my 2p's worth...

[darmstadt]

Most German agencies get you to sign a set of T&C's before you get the contract and quite often before you even have an interview. I've had to do this a number of times but not until after reading them thoroughly. With the current one I pointed out that the customer is very large and I already do work for them for other companies anyway so got it changed for just this department. The worst one I had was for an agency owned by the Stock Exchange which had about 5 different pre-contract contracts but still didn't have any effect on the contract. I've only ever had problems when British agencies try to do business here from the UK and have English speaking/thinking agents, they tend to get out of their depth.

[NotAllThere]

The laws in Switzerland regarding contracts and restrictions are much more in favour of the agencies that in the UK, and this may apply to Germany and Austria as well.

K2, for example, in their standard contract have a clause that tries to stop you working through anyone else in Switzerland. ( The enforceability of this is subject to question, but it would have to be tested in court, which is extremely unlikey to happen ).

All you can do is read very carefully everything they send you. And feel free to make changes to their contract and sign that, before you send it back.

Don't sign anything that you don't agree with. Even if it means not getting the job. And use smaller agencies - or smaller branches of the bigger agencies.

[Lockhouse]

Whenever I have had this problem I have always said that the agent who gets my details in front of the client is the one who gets the business.

so if they are trying that on I would suggest that you will be happy for them to do this as long as they get your details in front of the client

Definitely WHS

[zathras]

Whenever I have had this problem I have always said that the agent who gets my details in front of the client is the one who gets the business.

so if they are trying that on I would suggest that you will be happy for them to do this as long as they get your details in front of the client

[engineer]

I am residing in germany, working as an electric engineer for hardware, embedded firmware and PLD design in germany, austria and switzerland and more and more suffer from the aggressive agency battle taking place here!

Within less than 3 years, it happend nearly 10 times now, that I could not accept a contract or had been blocked out, because one and the same project has been anounced to me three or four times from different agencies.

It is more or less always the same procedure: One of those famous "key account managers" (nowadays mostly blonde ladies, aged 25 and having studied something like economics) give my a call and anounce a project with a quit high rate. After accepting their pre contract, which allowes me only to work for them, I hear nothing again for a week while they obviuosly try to get somebody else in at the customers. In only around a third of the cases they finally come back to me, because they failed, or the customer did not like the others, which are cheaper than me or maybe did not have the same knowledge.

Because I cannot sit and wait, I parallely negotiate other opportunities but since agencies always modify the explanation , it is hard for me to distinguish the offers and discover identical positions.

Finally the fact, that there are not enough enginers in germany but too many agencies makes it even worse for me than it used to be in times, where there were more engineers avaliable at the same time for a project and this "blocking out the expensive guy" would not work.

Obviously the only action of the agencies currently is, to block out higher educated people with higher rates, where they cannot earn enough.

As said at the beginning, there had been so many collisions recently, that I concentrated on positions, which were offered by one agency only, which then lead to the fact, that I had to work in switzerland to shun that all.


I wonder if you experice the same in the UK.