Ten Dirty Tricks Agencies Play
We published an article called Ten Dirty Tricks that Agents Play on Contractors. This is the follow up.
1. They keep taking invoices from contractors even when they know that their agencies are going bust, to the effect that the contractors lose all their money to the liquidator.
2. They send your CV off to clients without telling you, involving you in inter-agency disputes that could cost you the chance of an interview with the client.
3. They don‘t tell you about the latest status of a contract position that they put you forward to, and it annoys them when you call asking about it.
They say ‘We‘ll call you when there‘s any news’.
What they mean is that they‘ll call you when there is any news that they can profit from.
They‘ll seldom call to tell you bad news. They want you to quietly disappear then.
Run You Down to Client
4. If they know that you are up against one of their candidates, they will run you down to a potential employer or client.
They‘ll often find out this information about the potential client or employer by asking you who other agencies put you forward to in the first place.
Their gratitude for that information won‘t extend to not putting the boot into you when they get a chance.
5. They have no sense of decency when it comes to their cut.
Most people would say up to 20% is fine, but 25% in some circumstances would be OK.
However, many of them would take 90% if they thought that you would never find out.
Put Forward CV
6. They will tell you that they‘ve put your CV forward to a company or client, even when they haven‘t.
They do this so that you‘ll tell other agencies that you‘ve been put forward already, in order to cut down the competition against the candidate or candidates that they‘ve already put forward with the same skillsets as you have.
7. At renewal time, they will sometimes tell the client that they have someone better than you, when all they have is someone on whom they can make a greater margin than they can from you.
8. Once they‘ve got you a contract, they‘ll come back to you and tell you that the rate is less than you‘d agreed before, and that this was because of the client.
They are almost certainly just trying to increase their margin.
Exclusion Clause in Contract
9. They have clauses in your contract that say that you cannot approach the client yourself for more work for periods of up to a year after you have left the company.
These clauses are illegal and are a restraint of trade. However, the client doesn‘t want all the hassle and a possible court case, so you are left with no option but to go through the agency again, even though you have contacted the company yourself, say six months later.
10. They will slip changes into your contract at renewal time without telling you that the changes are there, e.g. cutting the notice period that you are entitled to, or cutting it out altogether.
I am sure that there are more where thes ten dirty tricks came from. If you know of any more, please let us know.
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