Withdrawal of contract - what are my rights?

eyesy

A member of my family received a job offer, and was due to start tomorrow. In the last week a family member has become seriously ill. We phoned the employer and asked for an extension to the start date, the employer refused and basically said "either start tomorrow or forget the job". So we phoned back to discuss and ultimately to confirm starting the job tomorrow - but the employee said that they had decided to withdraw the job offer and would be sending a cancellation out in the post - asked for a reason, and they refused to give one.

We have the original contract from them, received a couple of weeks ago.

Is this a breach of contract in two ways i.e. cancellation of the contract and secondly, failure to give a reason? And if so - what should we do about it?

Thanks

Eyesy

dmg24

Did your relative actually sign the contract and return it i.e. signifying acceptance?

eyesy

dmg24 wrote: »

Did your relative actually sign the contract and return it i.e. signifying acceptance?

He signed it. I don't know if he sent it back to them - I suspect not. I would have thought, though, that signing it and receiving it signed on their part is enough to state that the contract is accepted - what would happen if he sent it and it got lost in the post?

I asked ACAS about that (i.e. what is the definition of "acceptance" of contract) and they said that they didn't think that it mattered, that it could just as easily have been a verbal contract (albeit that would be more difficult to prove).

Thanks

Eyesy

CFC

You're wasting time on this one. Apart from anything else, without knowing the full story of what your relative said to the employer, and what the employer has stated in the cancellation letter, we can't really give any sensible advice.

Not to mention that in the first 30 days you can terminate someone without them having any recourse (unless the appropriate discrimination legislation is relevant) and give them only one day's paid notice.

barvid

Slightly off topic, but an interesting point - if you accept an offer by post, I seem to remember from my law degree days that contract law deems it to be accepted at the moment you POST the acceptance, not when (or even if) the other party receives it. So technically it wouldn't matter whether the employer had received the signed contract. But CFC is right about the fact that it's a contract of employment making things slightly different.

dmg24

The postal acceptance rule is in itself subject to several exceptions, and I would say that this is one of them.

If you consider the situation from the employer's point of view, if they do not receive back the contract, how do they know that the prospective employee is going to turn up for work? For this reason, I think that acceptance in this situation has to be communicated.

As CFC has noted, a new employee (even one that has started work) has very little right to recourse for termination of contract. I think this is a situation that just needs to be put down to a bad experience.

I hope your relative's condition improves soon x

eyesy

Thanks for your feedback everyone. I spoke with ACAS after making my original posts - they seemed to think that we could have a possible case of breach of contract, but, as someone else has pointed out (and a solicitor relative of ours), we would have very little to recourse - probably one day or one weeks' wage at most.

Whilst the contract was not posted back, the position was accepted by means of email and telephone - plus they've said they'll be withdrawing the offer in writing, although refused to give a reason for the withdrawal - aren't we legally entitled to one?

I was just really surprised and disappointed with the attitude of the company - at the moment there's really very little we want to do as my dad's condition has worsened over the past couple of days and that's our main priority - but it struck me as a little heartless of the company to force us into making such a difficult decision i.e. come in on day x or lose the job, and then having agreed to do that anyway, withdrawing the offer anyway.

Thanks for the advice anyway.

Eyesy

LittleVoice

Without a year's employment history with them, I don't think you can insist on a written reason.

Only if you think that illegal discrimination has taken place are you likely to get anywhere with this one, I'm afraid.