Apologies for the late reply - as this thread has been relatively quiet for the past few months, I only check it once every now and then.
Hi LordDenning, thank you for the great initiative.
Would it be ok if I send you a PM about a legal issue I'm facing?
Yes, please feel free to send a PM about the legal issue and I will try my best to answer your queries.
Hi All,
Need your advise on this.
I recently gotten a new job via a recruitment agency (lets call them A) and have signed the employment contract with them. I was due to start work at the end of May. Few days later, I was also asked to sign a letter of commitment, stating that if I decline the job offer at a later date or fail to commence work, I would have to pay 1 month pay as compensation.
I was skeptical of this letter as I do not wish to be bonded by such terms.
Skip to 2 weeks later, the recruiter kept sending me email/whatsapp to chase for the signed letter of commitment. Due to my stupidity, I decided to sign this letter and stop her from chasing and hounding me.
A week later, I received a better job offer from another company. I decided to take up this offer and informed A of my decision to forgo their offer as I have found a better job. This recruiter was furious and demanded that I pay 1 month compensation and used the signed letter of commitment as proof. They said it was a breach of contract and will bring legal action against me if I did not pay them. (PS. I am just a white collar worker earning ard 3k/mth only T.T)
Question:
1. Will the agency go ahead with their threats?
2. Since I am in breach of contract, do I have any chance to win? I believe this is really unethical of this agency to come out with such clauses. I plan to find a pro bono lawyer if it really goes to legal action.
3. Signed letter of commitment stated was 9-April, but I only signed on 22-April after much chasing from the recruiter. Is this backdated "contract" still valid? Can I say I signed it due to duress? (continously chasing from recruiter)
4. I called MOM and they said they cannot help as employee-employer relationship is not established, so my problem is with the agency.zzz. Any other governing bodies which can help me?
Hopeful for some advise as I do not wish to pay this 3k to the agency T.T
Without sighting the exact clause in question, below are my responses to your questions.
1. I cannot say with certainty whether the agency will or will not proceed with legal action. However, more often than not, it is not worth the time and costs to pursue a claim that is only $3k.
2. The response will be provided in point form due to the number of sub-parts
- First of all, it may not be easy to find a pro bono lawyer for civil cases, although you may seek legal advice from those legal clinics in the community centres.
- Second, given the quantum of the claim, any legal action will have to be brought before the Small Claims Tribunal and there is no need for legal representation - parties will argue the case before a judge personally.
- Third, your best shot to fight this case is perhaps to argue that (1) the damages (i.e., $3k) is not a genuine pre-estimate of the loss, and (2) even if (1) is true, the agency ought to have mitigated its loss by seeking another candidate.
- The law mandates that all liquidated damages clause (i.e., clauses that fix an amount of money to be paid for breach of contract) must be a genuine pre-estimate of the loss incurred by the innocent party. However, the burden of proof lies on you.
- The law is not settled on whether liquidated damages clauses are subject to the principles of mitigation, but it may be worth a shot if you reach the stage of legal proceedings. This will likely depend on how much time the agency had (to find another candidate) between your repudiation of contract and the actual commencement date of the contract.
3. The "contract" will still be valid. In contract law, arguing that a contract is void due to duress is likely to succeed
only when there are physical threats involved. Thus, being constantly "chased" by the recruiter would not be considered as duress.
4. This is a private matter between you and the agency, so I'm afraid there is no governing body that can help you.
Your best bet is probably to hope that $3k is not worth the troubles for the agency. Otherwise, if this matter is brought to the SCT, you can still counter-offer with a lower amount to settle the case. Please feel free to reach out (either here or via PM) if you have any further question.
Once again, I stress that none of the above constitutes legal advice.