Category: Recruitment Industry
Banning “Ban on Assignment” clauses
Recruitment Business directors, you find me on the verge of getting professionally excited again. If the draft legislation currently known as the Business Contract Terms (Assignment of Receivables) Regulations 2018 is introduced, it will literally shave minutes off my day and the advice I give to agency recruiters. Yes, this draft bill proposes that ban... Read more »
Recruiters – Don’t be a backdoor bully
Know when you have a right to a backdoor fee, and when you don’t. If you don’t, you could lose credibility, reputation & revenue. I have just been instructed by a new client, a large travel company, which is being bullied by a recruitment agency into paying an alleged back door placement fee, which the... Read more »
Why does a recruitment company even need to use a firm of solicitors?
Solicitors get a bad press for taking too long, charging too much and generally lording it over those who are not qualified. I can’t condone that sort of behaviour, but there are lots of good reasons why you shouldn’t try to get your legal work done by someone who isn’t, or isn’t supervised by, a... Read more »
What should Recruiters do to protect against anti tax evasion?
The Criminal Finance Act 2017 (“the Act”) came into effect on 30/09/17, and comes with the same sort of guidance as with Bribery Act. In simple terms the Act imposes a criminal liability on businesses that fail to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion. That extends to preventing their employees, agents, or representatives facilitating tax... Read more »
Opting out of the conduct of employment agencies
OPTING OUT OF THE CONDUCT OF EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES AND EMPLOYMENT BUSINESSES REGULATIONS 2003 (“the Conduct Regulations”) Is everyone entirely sure what this means? Agency recruiters talk about contractors opting out of the Conduct Regulations, but I’m not always convinced that everyone understands what that means. Before I start, let’s be clear that the Conduct Regulations... Read more »
RECRUITER OWN GOALS – How to be the best recruiter you can be
Written by someone who has to pick the ball up from the back of the other team’s net. I love recruitment and recruiters. It’s as simple as that. I am full of admiration for what you do, as I couldn’t do your job in a month of Sundays. So what I’m about to say isn’t... Read more »
On the Trail of Back Door Hires
“Back door hires”, “back door placements”, “back dooring”, call it what you like, it’s incredibly frustrating when it happens. At best it can happen by accident. At worst it can be a deliberate attempt to get one over on the recruitment company. Let’s be clear what a back door hire actually is. It’s when a... Read more »
Mind the Gap – Navigating the New Recruiting Landscape
The so-called Gig Economy hits the headlines when notable hirers such as Uber and Deliveroo are legally arguing whether their drivers are truly self employed or actually employees. In the public eye, they and similar companies are accused of under-paying and exploiting an increasingly flexible workforce. Flexible working and temporary contracts are nothing new; in... Read more »
When is a restrictive covenant truly restrictive?
I’ve had a series of restrictive covenant cases recently, both from former employees and former employers, and I have repeatedly been asked “are they enforceable”. Fair question really, but unfortunately for the former employer, the answer is not always yes. We all know that a restrictive covenant which is wider than reasonably necessary to protect... Read more »
Recruiters – making sure you’re the effective cause
I’ve written about introductions in recruitment before, but a recent spate of backdoor hire cases has prompted me to do so again. Backdoor hires are one of the primary scourges of the recruitment industry. At Cognitive Law we help many recruitment companies recover those placement fees. Some are easier to recover than others, but in... Read more »