Offered a new job after accepting contract

[Speed Badger]

Hi all, just after a bit of reassurance.

Mrs Badger (currently unemployed due to accepting voluntary exit) has just accepted and signed a 1 year contract on a new job. However another interview she went for has come up trumps and has been offered a different job for £15k a year more and it's permanent. Obviously it's a no-brainer, but can the current employers with whom she's just signed a contract take any legal action over this?

It's probably a really divvy question and not a problem at all, but just wanted to make sure.

Cheers

[balls-out]

to the best of my knowledge, yes they can.

[RobinOakapple]

They could take legal action, but won't.

[Jasandjules]

RobinOakapple said:

They could take legal action, but won't.

In this case I agree there is a strong chance they won't. It may be if she speaks to them they will be quite happy for her to move on in any event.

[Devil2575]

I'm not sure about contract signing but people have accepted positions with the company I work for but then backed out before they started due to getting a better offer. My company has never taken action against them. I was under the impression that until you'd actually started that you could still back out.

[Slurms]

As others have said, yes they could but in practice I've never seen it happen - unless you're a very senior hire or a key staff member and those tend to be very unique situations.

[MitchT]

I read recently on here that someone had their new role made redundant before they'd started, but after they'd signed the contract and handed in their notice with their current employer, but that they had no rights whatsoever. Given this, why should it be any different if the prospective employee is the one who pulls the plug?

Also, if the 'offended' prospective employer does have some rights, what can they actually do that's going to negate the benefit (to the employee) of taking a £15k better paid job and sucking up whatever punishment they get for giving backword?

[scrwright]

whats the notice period on the contract? the worst case is you would have to work the notice period, but no employer would take on a new hire knowing this, its a waste of their time & money

[LoonR1]

scrwright said:

whats the notice period on the contract? the worst case is you would have to work the notice period, but no employer would take on a new hire knowing this, its a waste of their time & money

Is the correct answer. It's highly unlikely that the one year contract has the full contract term as the notice period

[balls-out]

scrwright said:

whats the notice period on the contract? the worst case is you would have to work the notice period, but no employer would take on a new hire knowing this, its a waste of their time & money

My understanding is that a court can't enforce somebody to honour a contract, instead they have to pay the damages. I would say worst case would be the employer claims for the loss of profit that the employee would make until a replacement is found and the cost of finding the replacement.

Can't see it ever happening of course.

[Dodsy]

We use a lot of contractors and have had this happen in the past. All contracts have a notice period so worst case is that they would start then work their notice. We wouldnt do this of course, we just let them go before they start and put them on our blacklist.

[Devil2575]

Dodsy said:

We use a lot of contractors and have had this happen in the past. All contracts have a notice period so worst case is that they would start then work their notice. We wouldnt do this of course, we just let them go before they start and put them on our blacklist.

The company I work for also employees contractors and I was discussing this issue with one over lunch. His contract has a 1 week notice period for both him and the company, but that only comes into force 1 week after starting, so in the first week either party can walk away with effectively no notice.

His view was the same as yours, at worst you would be blacklisted.

[General Fluff]

Dodsy said:

We use a lot of contractors and have had this happen in the past. All contracts have a notice period so worst case is that they would start then work their notice. We wouldnt do this of course, we just let them go before they start and put them on our blacklist.

Blacklisting seems a bit spiteful. What would you do if your circumstances changed and you didn't need them any more? I suppose you would keep them on for the year anyway would you?

If you want people to behave like permanent staff don't employ contractors.

[Devil2575]

General Fluff said:

Blacklisting seems a bit spiteful. What would you do if your circumstances changed and you didn't need them any more? I suppose you would keep them on for the year anyway would you?

If you want people to behave like permanent staff don't employ contractors.

I agree with this sentiment but in my experience the people that have the final say can be small minded and vindictive.

[SpeckledJim]

General Fluff said:

Dodsy said:

We use a lot of contractors and have had this happen in the past. All contracts have a notice period so worst case is that they would start then work their notice. We wouldnt do this of course, we just let them go before they start and put them on our blacklist.

Blacklisting seems a bit spiteful. What would you do if your circumstances changed and you didn't need them any more? I suppose you would keep them on for the year anyway would you?

If you want people to behave like permanent staff don't employ contractors.

Because they've been messed about. It's not the end of the world, but you wouldn't be keen to give that person the opportunity to mess you about again, unless you really had to.

[Jasandjules]

Dodsy said:

We use a lot of contractors and have had this happen in the past. All contracts have a notice period so worst case is that they would start then work their notice. We wouldnt do this of course, we just let them go before they start and put them on our blacklist.

No, they wouldn't work their notice, the UK doesn't have slavery and you can't force someone to work. The best you would get is an award in damages, but that said, you would have to show loss. And mitigate. And I can't see a court taking it well if you tried.

[JustinP1]

balls-out said:

My understanding is that a court can't enforce somebody to honour a contract, instead they have to pay the damages. I would say worst case would be the employer claims for the loss of profit that the employee would make until a replacement is found and the cost of finding the replacement.

Can't see it ever happening of course.

If an employment agency has been used, the finders fee will be in the region of 10-15% of the salary.

If that's been paid, then the employer will be rather miffed.

My advice would be to be very quickly open and honest with the first employer to maximise the chances of getting a replacement with the least cost.

[General Fluff]

JustinP1 said:

If an employment agency has been used, the finders fee will be in the region of 10-15% of the salary.

If that's been paid, then the employer will be rather miffed.

My advice would be to be very quickly open and honest with the first employer to maximise the chances of getting a replacement with the least cost.

Agents fees for contractors are normally added to the hourly rate so there is no loss here. For permanent staff aren't they normally only paid once the employee has been in the position for 6 months or more? In any case, whether someone works their notice period or not will have little impact on the finder's fee. Working your 4 weeks or whatever doesn't add much value to the fee.

[raywillden]

JustinP1 said:

If an employment agency has been used, the finders fee will be in the region of 10-15% of the salary.

If that's been paid, then the employer will be rather miffed.

My advice would be to be very quickly open and honest with the first employer to maximise the chances of getting a replacement with the least cost.

Not true. Employment agency won't invoice until she starts the job, and even then most have a rebate period if she were to leave. If it's a contract through an agency then no money will change hands until hours are worked. Either way the company won't have lost out financially.

This happens all the time, I wouldn't worry about it and just take the better paid job...

[Speed Badger]

Thanks for the replies and advice. So the consensus seems to be that unless they are monumental a-holes, they will most likely understand and hopefully be ok with it.