So I recently ended a contract early with Client A who was absolutely fine with my termination to go to Client B on the same site. However the agency I had gone through had other ideas and set about trying to hijack my new contract so that I would stay with them. When I said I wanted to go to Client B direct...out came the legal threats of restrictive covenants. Even though I thought they were pushing their luck on the covenant I tried to work with them to avoid any issues as Client B required my skill set. I said I would go through them for the next 6 months as long as at the end of the contract the covenants would no longer be in place. The initial response from them was they were not prepared to do that.
After several weeks of pressure from Client B I thought we had achieved a breakthrough. The agency was agreeing to no restrictive covenants at the end of the 6 months however wanted me to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement. This seemed pretty off, but when I found out from Client B that unknown to me the agency wanted exclusivity over future contract positions with Client B ethics were out the window. At this point both Client B and I refused to take this any further and hoped we can pick up in 6 months.
Four weeks after requesting confirmation from agency the extent to the covenant they are trying to enforce I receive a letter from their legal department. I must reiterate that during this time I had conflicting information from different people at the agency to where and who the covenant would relate to preventing me from working.
It was to my great surprise when the statement in the letter stated; "We can confirm that in accordance with Clause 8, you are restricted from working for any person on whose site you have provided services to under the Contract, in this case, the Ministry of Defence, for a period of 6 months following the termination of the Contract."
The Ministry of Defence ? In total? Every worldwide site?
I had been in contact with APSCO who are supposed to be concerned in how its members conduct themselves and logged a complaint. In an article I found contractorcalculator.co.uk the CEO Ann Swain stated ''Were we to receive a complaint of this type about one of our member agencies, we would come down quite hard on them,''
After speaking with them and showing them the letter from the agency legal department their response was;
From the letter I can see this isn’t specific to one area of the MOD and they have clarified as we requested.
Apologies we can’t really assist further here as it is a commercial matter.
I am fed up and stressed with the bullying and intimidation and the down right despicable way in which I have been treated. Further more trying to prevent me from working in my chosen field in my chosen sector is disgusting.
Consider yourself named and shamed LA International.
After several weeks of pressure from Client B I thought we had achieved a breakthrough. The agency was agreeing to no restrictive covenants at the end of the 6 months however wanted me to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement. This seemed pretty off, but when I found out from Client B that unknown to me the agency wanted exclusivity over future contract positions with Client B ethics were out the window. At this point both Client B and I refused to take this any further and hoped we can pick up in 6 months.
Four weeks after requesting confirmation from agency the extent to the covenant they are trying to enforce I receive a letter from their legal department. I must reiterate that during this time I had conflicting information from different people at the agency to where and who the covenant would relate to preventing me from working.
It was to my great surprise when the statement in the letter stated; "We can confirm that in accordance with Clause 8, you are restricted from working for any person on whose site you have provided services to under the Contract, in this case, the Ministry of Defence, for a period of 6 months following the termination of the Contract."
The Ministry of Defence ? In total? Every worldwide site?
I had been in contact with APSCO who are supposed to be concerned in how its members conduct themselves and logged a complaint. In an article I found contractorcalculator.co.uk the CEO Ann Swain stated ''Were we to receive a complaint of this type about one of our member agencies, we would come down quite hard on them,''
After speaking with them and showing them the letter from the agency legal department their response was;
From the letter I can see this isn’t specific to one area of the MOD and they have clarified as we requested.
Apologies we can’t really assist further here as it is a commercial matter.
I am fed up and stressed with the bullying and intimidation and the down right despicable way in which I have been treated. Further more trying to prevent me from working in my chosen field in my chosen sector is disgusting.
Consider yourself named and shamed LA International.
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