Help - Recruiter Blocking Offer / Holding Hostage
Hi,
I am being blocked from receiving an offer by a head hunter. He had not entered into an agreement with the company, and immediately after they told him they were planning to extend an offer he threatened to sue unless they paid him a very high percent of my first year's salary.
He has since stopped returning my phone calls and emails, and I am under the impression that the company can either pay his fee or let me go.
Has anyone experienced anything like this? Do I have any legal recourse?
Very time sensitive and very urgent.
Preface: Not a lawyer and not legal advice here.
I'm sorry to hear about your situation - that sucks. I don't think you have any legal recourse to force someone to give you an offer. The only claim I can think of (again, not a lawyer, not a great legal mind, so take what I say with a grain of salt) is if you relied on the representation of a job offer to your detriment - maybe check into promissory estoppel with regard to job offers, don't know how concrete your "offer" was anyway. This would only apply if for example you moved to a new city because they told you that you had the job and then they pulled it for whatever reason. In any case, I would imagine the amount of your claim wouldn't be worth it to initiate legal action.
Also I would be wary of both the headhunter (probably wouldn't ever use him again) and the firm in question (every legit and honest firm is going to understand that you have to pay a recruiter a fat fee of like 1/3 salary for bringing in a new hire. If it's them that's holding up the process by trying to dick over the recruiter, then you may want to mull this one over a little more even if you do end up with the offer.)
Thank you very much -- I think you're spot on.
To clarify: I am wondering if I have legal recourse to get the recruiter to back off, or at least if it wouldn't be a complete waste of money to hire an attorney to send him the equivalent of a cease and desist letter.
I had been operating under the assumption that the recruiter had a pre-existing agreement with the company, either exclusivity or at least on contingency. My impression is that he essentially submitted my resume to a job posting and then hoped that the company would agree to pay him a fee at the end of the engagement, but didn't engage in those discussions until the end of the process -- at which point he had significant amount of leverage considering it had already been established that it was a strong fit.
So, you were introduced to the company by the recruiter. The company hired you but claims that, asides from introducing you to the company the recruiter did not perform any of the other actions that recruiters normally perform to push a client? Is there a contract between the recruiter and the firm that specifies what kind of actions he is expected to take?
Maybe you can get a free consultation with a lawyer or pay a minimal fee if you really want this job and are afraid they will rescind the offer.
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