Fire a shoddy employer or just roll over and take it?

I think an employer behaved badly to a headhunter on our marketplace. We're kicking the employer off the site. Question - Are we right to think this is shoddy behavior or should we just roll over and accept it?

Short story: an agribusiness employer posted a job looking for a full time position on our marketplace and offered a 20% bounty. A recruiter (damn good one) brought them a candidate whom they interviewed, liked and decided to hire – but on a 3 month contract. The employer has told the HH they don’t owe them a penny – because the bounty offered was for an “employee” and they ended up hiring them only as a “contractor”. This is the only time this has happened to us, but we feel we need to defend the HH. The legal terms are clearly on our side and recruiters (rightfully) insist that we only have employers that are partners.

Despite the fact they are a healthy source of jobs, I think we have no choice. However in our 3 years this is the first time I have seen this.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on February 10, 2010 at 3:36pm

There is no learning experience like getting snaked. Add a clause to your terms that indicates if a candidate who is submitted for a perm position is hired on contract the employer will agree to pay 20% of the amount the candidate earns during the duration of the contract. If there is nothing in the current terms to address that situation, call your attorney to discover if you have a position to bill the employer. If they do it once and get away with it they will do it again.

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Permalink Reply by Stewart Belsham on February 18, 2010 at 2:18pm

Hello Mike,

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." If your client is a crook, leave them as soon as possible. If they are just stupid (or negligent) then in future protect yourself from ambiguity. If either of you reaches for the contract, both of you have lost.

I'd probably look at making it right with the HH if you could possibly do this (even 50%) , but I'd give them the benefit of any doubt there is.

Good Luck
Stewart