emplyer reneged on job offer

[ser5htp]

Hi

I recently had an interview with a company in London. We negotiated a salary and agreed on a start date in 3 months' time. All of this has a steady email trail, with dates, salary, and an agreement on both sides.

The job was conditional on my producing satisfactory references. I heard from a friend that I should not give the references until I received a contract, and did not give any references. I asked on two occasions regarding a contract and was told to wait, it would come shortly.

I went on a planned vacation, that the employer was aware of, and in the meantime, they emailed me a contract.The contract was specifically made for me, and took them 8 days to send it. 4 days after they sent the contract, I received an email, and they were retracting their job offer, with the reason being they had not received an email from me regarding the contract.

Needless to say I was upset, as I had given notice in my current post, and will suffer from unemployment due to their action.

I am curious if there is any recourse I have in this case. Does anyone have any ideas, or thoughts on a similar issue.

I have read that there are many cases of people successfully gaining compensation, but the cases I read about are in USA, not UK

[Kati]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

[MENTION=19071]teaboy2[/MENTION] [MENTION=67649]matt3942[/MENTION] ?? any advice??

[FlamingParrot]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

I recently had an interview with a company in London. We negotiated a salary and agreed on a start date in 3 months' time. All of this has a steady email trail, with dates, salary, and an agreement on both sides.

The job was conditional on my producing satisfactory references. I heard from a friend that I should not give the references until I received a contract, and did not give any references. I asked on two occasions regarding a contract and was told to wait, it would come shortly.

I went on a planned vacation, that the employer was aware of, and in the meantime, they emailed me a contract.The contract was specifically made for me, and took them 8 days to send it. 4 days after they sent the contract, I received an email, and they were retracting their job offer, with the reason being they had not received an email from me regarding the contract.

Did the email they sent give you an indication of how soon you were expected to respond?

From a contract law perspective, an offer can be terminated if it's not accepted within a 'reasonable' time, what constitutes a reasonable time depends on the circumstances. Because email is an instant means of communication, it could be assumed that four days would not be a reasonable time to respond. Even if you were away on holiday, in this day and age people would be expected to be able to check their emails regularly on their phones, etc. Were you not able to check your emails for the full eight days you were away?

[stevemLS]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

Agree with what FP says but, in reality, there would be little you could do about it in any event and even had you responded and they had withdrawn the offer the maximum you could have pursued them for would be a week's wages in lieu of statutory notice.

Employees are very vulnerable in the early stages of a job. Did your friends not also advise you not to give in your notice prior to getting the contract?

[teaboy2]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

Agreed with @FlamingParrot and @stevemLS

I think your best course of action would be to email them explaining that as they were aware you were on holiday at the time they sent the contract through so had no access to your emails, therefore you find it unreasonable for them to then withdraw the offer of employment within 4 days of sending the contract, when they were fully aware you were on holiday at the time (attach copy of email informing them of your holidays), especially when it took them 8 days to produce the email, and only gave you 4 days in which to read through the contract, consider the terms etc and respond to them, when the reality is the agreed start date was still 3 months away! Therefore ask them to reconsider.

Or simply sign the contract and back date it, and send it in the post, explaining that it is in the post to them. Basically once signed and back dated to being signed a date before they reneged, then that will cause them a dilemma as technically you would have been in a contract with them when they sent the email retracting the offer of employment. Sneaky i know and still a long shot, but may be worth a try!

Ohh and your scanner stopped working, so you had no choice but to post it!

[stevemLS]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

There is also the question of the offer being conditional on references, which as I read the thread, have never been provided.

I would counsel against getting involved in any kind of deception which is what now signing and backdating the contract would amount to.

[teaboy2]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

There is also the question of the offer being conditional on references, which as I read the thread, have never been provided.

I would counsel against getting involved in any kind of deception which is what now signing and backdating the contract would amount to.

I only mentioned it as an alternative option, obviously the best course of option was what i first suggested.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

There is also the question of the offer being conditional on references, which as I read the thread, have never been provided.

I would counsel against getting involved in any kind of deception which is what now signing and backdating the contract would amount to.

Most job offers are subject to references. The trick above probably wouldn't make much difference because, even though an offer is deemed to be made as soon as it is posted (if made by post), when it comes to acceptance, the offer is deemed accepted when acceptance is received, not when it's posted or dated. If the employer receives the contract on Friday, he could show he revoked the offer long before it was accepted, when he sent the email.

[teaboy2]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

Most job offers are subject to references. The trick above probably wouldn't make much difference because, even though an offer is deemed to be made as soon as it is posted (if made by post), when it comes to acceptance, the offer is deemed accepted when acceptance is received, not when it's posted or dated. If the employer receives the contract on Friday, he could show he revoked the offer long before it was accepted, when he sent the email.

Exactly, hence why it may be worth a shot as the employer may not know what we do, that and the fact the employer was aware that OP was on holidays at the time they sent the contract through would help the OP's position too. As how can they expect him to read, print off, sign and scan the signed copy to computer (when on holiday and likely no scanner) and post it back to them before he got back to the UK (as he'd probably be back from holiday before the contract arrived back in the UK as part of the mail, if posted abroad) if he wasn't back from his holidays within those 4 days? Even if he had posted it back from abroad, it would take best part of 7 days to arrive or 2 weeks depending on where he was for his holidays!

[FlamingParrot]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

Exactly, hence why it may be worth a shot as the employer may not know what we do, that and the fact the employer was aware that OP was on holidays at the time they sent the contract through would help the OP's position too. As how can they expect him to read, print off, sign and scan the signed copy to computer (when on holiday and likely no scanner) and post it back to them before he got back to the UK (as he'd probably be back from holiday before the contract arrived back in the UK as part of the mail, if posted abroad) if he wasn't back from his holidays within those 4 days? Even if he had posted it back from abroad, it would take best part of 7 days to arrive or 2 weeks depending on where he was for his holidays!

I don't think it was a matter of actually doing all that, my guess is (and this is only a guess), the employer just expected a reply to the email saying something like "many thanks for the contract, I'm away at the moment but I shall print it off, sign and post it to you as soon as I get back" to indicate acceptance.

[teaboy2]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

Yes that's true, and there's no reason the OP couldn't access his emails on his phone when on holiday, unless he was visiting a remote area or area that has little or no internet or mobile coverage - Though only the OP would know the answer to that.

[des8]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

http://www.out-law.com/page-396 :A contract offer has only been accepted when the acceptance is brought to the attention of the offeror. This applies in the case of instantaneous communication, such as by telephone, where the party giving acceptance will often know at once if a communication is unsuccessful so will have the opportunity of making a proper communication. The exception to this rule is when the acceptance is posted. The offer is deemed to be accepted when the offeree posts their acceptance.

[teaboy2]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

http://www.out-law.com/page-396 :A contract offer has only been accepted when the acceptance is brought to the attention of the offeror. This applies in the case of instantaneous communication, such as by telephone, where the party giving acceptance will often know at once if a communication is unsuccessful so will have the opportunity of making a proper communication. The exception to this rule is when the acceptance is posted. The offer is deemed to be accepted when the offeree posts their acceptance.

Thank you Des - Problem with posting it here though, in the event employer is on the ball that is, is that it wouldn't have been posted till a date after they reneged. So then it all balls down to whether it was reasonable for the employer to only give the OP 4 days to respond/accept the contract when they knew that he was on holiday at the time and is therefore not guaranteed to have access to his email accounts?!

I guess all we can do is wait for the OP to come back and let us know what they think!

[stevemLS]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

Personally, I think the fact that they withdrew the offer only four days after they sent it is a red herring.

The fact is that they withdrew it, for whatever reason (which could be a multitude of things) before it had been accepted.

As I pointed out earlier, even if it had been accepted it could have been withdrawn and the maximum OP would be likely to recover would be a weeks salary in lieu of notice. Even if not withdrawn, accepted and started work, they could have given him a weeks notice for any (non protected characteristic related) reason or for none.

So, whilst discussion of postal rules and so on is interesting it is of little practical use to OP. The employer has decided they don't want him/her for their own reasons.

Again, as I said before, employees are highly vulnerable during this transitional and early stages of employment which is one reason why, often seen on here, people are advised not to give notice on existing jobs until at least the details of a new one are confirmed in writing.

My pragmatic suggestion to OP is that they move on and start to look elsewhere.

Sorry.

[teaboy2]

Re: emplyer reneged on job offer

No ones denying that @stevemLS

But the OP did tell the employer he would only send references after receiving the contract, clearly he didn't receive the contract till he got back from holiday when he also received the email about them withdrawing the offer dated 4 days after the email with the contract in. So if he was to sign and back date and post it along with details of references, then they'd have to show they acted reasonably in only giving 4 days knowing the OP was on holiday at the time and may not receive the email with the contract to he got back.

Yes they could terminate his employment if the references were not good, but that would be the only grounds. As its unlikely they would terminate employment for any other reason, unless the OP committed misconduct of some kind or his/her performance was not up to the level expected from them.

The op has made it clear that this has now left him unemployed, indicating he had left or resigned previous employment to take on this job after 3 months break from employment. So isn't our job here, to try and help the OP find away round this and to argue his point of view with the employer. By signing and back dating the contract and sending by post and pointing out they knew he was on holiday at the time they sent the contract, would put the employer in a sticky situation, because if OP has proof they knew he was on holiday at the time and therefore not likely to have access to emails or facilities to print off, sign, scan the contract in order to email it back, then he could potential sue them for financial detriment (unemployment) he incurred as a result of their unreasonable actions, that he would not have otherwise incurred if they the employer had acted reasonably and allowed more time for him to respond or sign the contract knowing he was on holiday at the time and may not have even been able to access his emails, let alone respond to them!

We also have the issue that the contract was negotiated and the terms therefore previously agreed, the signing of the contract was merely a formality as clearly the terms had been previously agreed to and the contract in written form would simply have confirmed the terms. Therefore their is the argument that the offer of employment had already been accepted at the end of the negotiations and the signing of the contract was merely a formality - As neither an unconditional or conditional offer of employment need be in writing nor does acceptence. Its clear from the OPs first post he had agreed terms with the employer, and therefore in my view and already accepted a conditional offer of employment and therefore was already under contract! The fact they withdrew purely because he hadn't signed and returned the contract is not sufficient reason to withdraw the job offer, as the reasons most be on grounds that the OP didn't meet the employers conditions, such as satisfactory references (which it was agreed would be provided after the contract was signed) or health grounds! So they can not argue the lack of satisfactory references for two reasons, one because they clearly stated it was withdrawn because he hadn't signed it, and two because it was previously agreed the references would be sent after contract was received/signed. Clearly the OP didn't receive the contract till he returned from holiday and therefore also received the email withdrawing the offer on the same day!