legal issue with agency

[eucontractor]

Hello,

I have some legal related question about my contracting agency:

I was working as an IT contractor for my client in UK for couple of months and recently moved out from UK to other EU country where the same client have the office.

I was trying to join them again in different team outside the UK with local contracting agency, but UK agency asked client to pay the fee for me rejoining the company.

It turns out that agreement between the UK contracting agency and UK client includes additional fee for the client if i will join the company again before the 6 month period after finishing my work, however i do not have such agreement in my contract between my company and UK contracting agency.

Do the have legal right to ask client for such fee if my new contract will be outside of the UK and with local country contracting agency?

Thank You for any advice.

ps. i have already signed contract with local contracting agency.

[northernladuk]

Sticky one that. In this day and age having an office in a different country doesn't mean it is a separate entity. It is still 'The Company' as a whole so you could say going to that company where ever would count. I presume the agency believe they introduced you to the company so doesn't matter if you work in London, Birmingham or Paris.

Does the company have a separate purchasing organisation per country or does it all feed in to the same system. You could argue although it is the same company in name the foreign countries exist as separate entities.

As ambiguous as this is for you it will be just as ambiguous to the agent so I am sure he will be nervous about perusing this one. The complexity of it being cross border will be as new and confusing to them but they are just trying it on.

Try and prove to them you are dealing with that countries HR via that countries budget so is in no way related to the operation in the UK so the same company in name but totally different in structure. I can't believe the agency is willing to start a complex legal battle over this. Press ahead until the agent comes up with something from a solicitor and then you may have to think about it I would say.

[Wanderer]

I was trying to join them again in different team outside the UK with local contracting agency, but UK agency asked client to pay the fee for me rejoining the company.

I'm not sure why this is your problem. That should be a matter between the agency and the client, nothing to do with you. Is the client not wanting to engage you to do the work due to this issue? Will the client stand up to the agency and tell them they won't pay?

Do the have legal right to ask client for such fee if my new contract will be outside of the UK and with local country contracting agency?

It depends if you signed the opt out or not. Even if you did sign the opt out, I'd be inclined to try and argue it was invalid if it wasn't signed before you were introduced to the client.

I'd also tell the agency that I will sue them for damages if they tried to damage my business by preventing me working for the end client.

Are you a PCG member? Their legal helpline might be able to give you some good advice on how to proceed.

[NotAllThere]

Is the agreement between agency and client about you personally not working within 6 months, without an additional payment, or does it name your ltd co. (or some other entity).

It really is a problem for your client to resolve. Without details of their contract, it's impossible to say whether there is a case. In my experience, however, it is unlikely that the agency would win, and even more unlikely that the agency would take legal action, as they should wish to preserve their relationship with the client.

If I were the client, I'd refuse to pay anything based on any ambiguity I could find, but offer the agency first dibs on any new requirements that come up.

[eucontractor]

Is the agreement between agency and client about you personally not working within 6 months, without an additional payment, or does it name your ltd co. (or some other entity).

its between my client and the agency, i have no idea about the details, the only thing i can confirm is that i dont have such agreement in my contract between my ltd and agency.

It really is a problem for your client to resolve. Without details of their contract, it's impossible to say whether there is a case. In my experience, however, it is unlikely that the agency would win, and even more unlikely that the agency would take legal action, as they should wish to preserve their relationship with the client.

The problem is this agency doesn't have good relationship with the client these days.

And i believe the client is not able to pay the fee to contracting agency, specially when the fee should be paid in GBP where client is located in different country where contractor rates and much more less than in UK.

Does anybody have some idea about the lawyer company that is specialized in such cases?