Supply through a Company or Recruitment Agency

[Dynamic]

There is a restriction clause in my contract with the agency as following:

"The Consultancy shall procure that the Consultancy Staff shall not for a period of 12 months following the
termination of the Assignment supply the services of the Consultancy Staff directly, or through any other
person, firm or company, to any Client for whom it has carried out the Assignment at any time during the
previous 12 months [save in the case of supply through a Company or recruitment consultancy with whom
the Consultancy was also registered at the date of commencement of the Assignment]. "

Which says I can't work directly for the client for 12 months, however, if I'm supplied via another recruitment agency or Company that would be fine.

1) What does "supply" mean here? could it be any Company that can sit between me and the client? or it can to be a Company who regularly supply people to clients?

2) What does "registration" with a Company or recruitment agency mean here? does it mean if the managing director of a Company just knows me and perhaps has had a record of me in their system, in that case I'm registered with them or does it mean that I should have had another contract with Company or agency?

I'd really appreciate your quick response.

[Wobblyheed]

Standard blurb...it's to stop you ditching the agent and going direct. If you don't intend doing this then don't worry about it.

[Dynamic]

Standard blurb...it's to stop you ditching the agent and going direct. If you don't intend doing this then don't worry about it.

My contract was between myself, the agency and the consultancy.

The client of the consultancy, where I carried out the work, has given me an offer now; could I accept it?

[The Agents View]

My contract was between myself, the agency and the consultancy.

The client of the consultancy, where I carried out the work, has given me an offer now; could I accept it?

From the agents point of view - I would say yes.
From the consultancies point of view, I suspect not.....

HTH

[Dynamic]

From the agents point of view - I would say yes.
HTH

you mean the agent can't cause any problem because my contract was with the consultancy not the client of the consultancy?

but I carried out the assignment on the client site, it doesn't matter?

[SueEllen]

you mean the agent can't cause any problem because my contract was with the consultancy not the client of the consultancy?

but I carried out the assignment on the client site, it doesn't matter?

I strongly suggest you read ALL the clauses in your contract properly.

Normally while you are engaged to provide services to a consultancy, your actual contract is between your company (or the umbrella company) that provides your services and the agency.

This means while the consultancy can have a large say in the contract between you and the agency, it doesn't engage the company that provides you directly.

This tends to mean that while you cannot work for the consultancy directly due to the clauses in the contract provided by the agency, you can work for the final end-client.

Edited to say: I hope you won't start another thread on this instead of just adding more information that you missed out to one of your other threads.

[Fred Bloggs]

Reading that, I believe the end client and the agency have nothing to do with each other. I think you're fine to work with the end client.

[PSK]

As ever, it would depend on the details in the whole agreement. From your post, I'm unclear what the delivery chain is - your company - your agent - is the next entity the end client or a consultancy before the end client?

That said, it looks like the term used to describe your company in the contract with the Agency is 'the Consultancy' - "The Consultancy shall procure that the Consultancy Staff shall not for a period of 12 months following the
termination of the Assignment supply the services of the Consultancy Staff directly, or through any other
person, firm or company, to any Client for whom it has carried out the Assignment at any time during the
previous 12 months [save in the case of supply through a Company or recruitment consultancy with whom
the Consultancy was also registered at the date of commencement of the Assignment]. "

I would say 'supply' means the anything you do for the end client that you get paid for/the provision of your companies' services though it may be a defined term in your contract.

If registration isn't described elsewhere in the contract, and if you haven't opted out, I think for you to work direct without paying the Agency then if there's a claim, you'd probably ultimately have to show some form of formal registration with the agency or company you use to 'wash through' the work. Every agency I've worked with has a formal registration contract that needs to be signed before they represent you. If you do work with the end client through another company and try and argue 'being on another companies' database' or something lighter than signing formal registration then you might want to ensure you read the entire agreement you signed up to with this agency to make sure there isn't something explicit elsewhere that will tie your hands.

I'd probably say the purpose of this part of the contract is to recognise a contractor might have genuine prior working relationships with other agencies, that said, none of the agreements I've seen with agencies allow even this relaxation of their commercial position. They might be thinking that, as working direct isn't an option, any intermediary may take a similar cut to them?

Well done for impressing the client enough for them to want to keep working with you. Good luck.