Job Offer Retraction

[libertyhaze]

Evening all,

Just looking for some advice on a situation that has arisen recently. I am a fresh graduate in the middle of the job hunt and until recently I held an elusive graduate job offer. The firm in question is a medium sized business based in Bracknell (not naming names) who, on the original job advert, informed applicants to 'state salary expectations'. I therefore stated along with my application a salary expectation of 25k - nothing was said about salary and I was invited to interview so I presumed I was in the right ballpark.

A couple of days after the interview I was sent an email saying that they would like to offer me the job - hooray I thought! However, further into the email the proposed salary was mentioned as follows:

We will put together a contract but these are our proposals in summary:
• Your grade: Researcher, Westminster Forum Projects
• Your salary: £18,000 per annum
• Term: The first six months of your employment will be a probationary period, during which notice is one week during your first four weeks, rising to two weeks. After successfully completing your probationary period, there is one month’s notice for first year and thereafter it will be two months on either side

Just FYI, we operate a salary scale formula for all new recruits which takes into account the role being applied for, and the candidate's work and educational experience. I would point out that all staff are given appraisals every six months and at these points increases in salary and grading are considered. Staff who perform well progress rapidly in their careers here.

If you would like to take up this offer please just confirm and indicate your starting date together with the names and email addresses of two referees. Alongside this is applicable please can I ask you to send me copies of any qualifications that may be relevant to the role. I will then draw up our standard employment contract and forward this to you.

This represented £7000 (28%) p/a less than what I had stated as my salary expectation and I was therefore naturally disappointed by this. However, given the circumstances, I thought I should accept the offer and perhaps ask if the salary could be subject to some negotiation. I therefore replied with the following:

Hi -----,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. Thank you very much for your offer.

Regarding my start date, I had ----- in mind due to current work and holiday commitments, along with my graduation ceremony on ----. Does this work for you? I could perhaps rearrange my holiday and start a week or so earlier if required, though I would need to book the ---- off for graduation.

I will forward reference details to you when I am home from work as I don't currently have these to hand, but they will be with you by tomorrow morning. My GCSE and A-Level certificates are currently at my home address but I'll do my best to get them scanned and sent ASAP.

I was wondering whether the salary proposed could be subject to negotiation; in my initial application I mentioned a salary expectation of around £25,000 which is a bit higher than what has been proposed. Would we be able to come to an agreement slightly closer to this figure?

Thank you again for your offer and I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
Dan

I then proceeded to send my referee details a few hours later thereby satisfying the requirements to accept the offer they laid out. After not receiving any response for a week, I sent a follow up email asking for an update and received the following reply the next day:

Dear Dan

Many thanks for your email.

I can confirm we have taken into consideration your request for a higher salary but I am afraid after further discussion we have taken the decision to withdraw the offer.

May I take this time to thank you for coming in to meet with us and wish you all the best with your future job search.

Kind regards

Over the course of two emails I had lost my job! Not only this, but in the week between the offer and the retraction I had stopped looking for other jobs and withdrew from my other applications, some of which I had got through to later stages of. I replied asking what the reason for this decision was, and of course I received no reply.

Now, having spoken to a friend studying Law, she seems to think that there could be a case for compensation here because, as a result of their job offer, I acted to my detriment.

I’d appreciate any thoughts on this; it’s more the principle than anything and I’d like to see them have some ‘come uppence’ for their lack of morals!!

Cheers,
Dan

[matt3942]

Re: Job Offer Retraction

Hi [MENTION=69931]libertyhaze[/MENTION] - welcome to the forum.

The employer will argue there was no acceptance of the offer because you attempted to negotiate the salary. Effectively you made a counter-offer.

You could argue that you did accept the offer by agreeing to send your qualification certificates and referee details as requested, and that you were merely enquiring about the possibility of negotiating the salary; however, IMO this is a weak argument.

Even if you had accepted the offer the most you would likely be entitled to is one week's pay in lieu of notice, which is typically not worth the time and effort required to achieve.

My advice would be to chalk this up to experience and continue the job hunt. I wish you the best of luck.

- Matt