Legal Question in Employment Law in Alabama

deceptive business practices

I was recently contacted by a Technical Recruiting firm here in Huntsville about a possible posistion. I interviewed for the position and the company I interviewed with decided to hire me straight on instead of hiring me through the recruiter. The recruiter told me in order to get the position I would have to pay them 20% of my salary, $12,000.00, even though I would not be employed by them. They didn't request this until they found out I had the job. Do I have any recourse, since they contacted me, I didn't request them to provide their services to me?


Asked on 9/16/02, 1:37 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Sterling DeRamus Sterling L. DeRamus, Attorney at Law

Re: deceptive business practices

It depends. Do you have a contract with the Recruiter? If you have no contract with the recruiter, then you most likely don't owe them any money. If you signed something that said you'd be responsible for the fee then indeed you do owe them the money.

Usually the recruiters have contracts with the hiring company so that this doesn't happen. Your employer has stuck it to the recruiter, and if there's a contract, your hiring without the payment of the fee would definitely be a violation that would result in legal liability to the company that hired you.

I've never heard of employer's charging the employee the fee. However, in Alabama there is nothing in the law that prohibits them from doing so - as long as they tell you that up front. Unfortunately, under Alabama law, you have little rights, and the company could fire you and you would have no recourse. The bottom line is what is in writing. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send me an email.

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Answered on 9/16/02, 2:55 pm


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