Job Offer-legally binding

[Teebs]

i have received a job offer sent to me by the recruiter acting on behalf of the new company. I have responded accepting the position with the pay and benefits outlined.

Do I still need to wait and sign a contract or is the email offer & acceptance legally binding?

Thanks

[tuffer]

Even a signed contract does not mean a lot as they can withdraw the offer or make you redundant before you start.

[anonymous-user]

You have already made a contract, but the employer could terminate it, giving whatever notice had been agreed or may be inferred as reasonable absent agreement.

[Jasper Gilder]

Chum of mine got offered a job with a Building Society, between offer and start date they restructured and dropped him a note saying he was no longer required. Legal advice said that because th econtract had not commenced, it could not be enforced. Job he didn't thus get - HR Director!!

[anonymous-user]

He should have got better advice.

[Teebs]

Thanks. Would the best advice be to wait until the contract arrives?

[Soov535]

Do NOTHING until you have a signed agreement in your hand.

[Teebs]

Soov535 said:

Do NOTHING until you have a signed agreement in your hand.

Cheers

[tuffer]

Teebs said:

Cheers

And that is still worth nowt, they could still pull the offer.

[essayer]

Always accept "subject to contract"

[anonymous-user]

Why?

[essayer]

Breadvan72 said:

Why?

To give you a get out if the contract mentions something you didn't expect or discuss?

[anonymous-user]

You seem to have an imperfect understanding of the law of contract.

[Soov535]

Morning Breaders.

I see you have discovered some more bush lawyering.

[essayer]

I also find that it gets the agents moving quicker than just saying 'yes'. I've had a few occasions where the agent dithers - perhaps dreaming of their bonus - and I find saying 'yes, provided I see the contract' gets them and the new employer moving quicker.

I certainly wouldn't ever want to resign or even start a new job without seeing the contract first, but people do..

Maybe because I do a lot of contract work and the turnaround on offers are a lot shorter than perm to perm transitions.

But yes, of course, if you don't like the contract, you don't need to sign it - or turn up to work

[Sheepshanks]

It's a can of worms for the person changing jobs though. The major multi-national I used to work for withdrew offers to people across Europe when someone acquired us and they basically just said "hard luck". In our industry (high tech) it's not that unusual as things can change fast.

For "ordinary" jobs, we didn't get people to sign contracts until after they started - in fact I worked there for years changing roles several times and never signed one. We never paid compensation to anyone - worst case I can't imagine why we'd need to pay anything other than notice period, which for most jobs would be a month.

[solo2]

Breadvan72 said:

He should have got better advice.

I got made redunant from a position three weeks and two days in citing they were closing the branch. Advice I received was nothing could be done even if they knew before they hired me, which Management must've. Is that true? Thankfully I've secured another job but it's not as good as the one I lost as travelling time and parking costs have increased dramatically but beggars can't be choosers I guess.

[anonymous-user]

Your claim would have been limited to net pay for the contractual notice period, but is not negligible if the period was, say, three months.

[Teebs]

Interesting reading, thanks.

I've now received the conditional offer from the HR manager outlining the offer. I was always under the impression that I could now resign from my current position (when the paper contract is signed), but from reading online, it looks that it may be best to wait for the conditions to be 'met'?
(Conditions are just references, although the they've not asked for details of references yet).

Thoughts?

[anonymous-user]

A conditional offer is what it says it is. It's conditional, so wait until the conditions are fulfilled before doing anything irrevocable.