Okay, this one still bugs me, because I would think a respectable business would have more ethics than this. For the purposes of brevity, lets call the Respectable Business, “RB.”
One day, I get a call from RB. “Hey we’ve heard about you, we like your work, we’d like to hire you to do ___.” I’m a lawyer in private practice, I want to know more before I accept a contractual position.
“Oh, we’ll fax all the paperwork over.” Note that in the legal profession, faxes are not outmoded, they are normal in the legal profession. If it’s not on paper, it didn’t happen. As I have so often said, the legal profession is not one to get into if you want to save the trees. Paper rules, and we lawyers use a lot of it. Including faxes.
So I looked at the contract on paper when I received the fax. Holy hannah, there was so much illegal in there that was wrong. In fairness, it was not criminal, but it broke the laws of Alberta’s Employment Standards Code. I called the job offeror back, with my objections and how they broke the Alberta Employment Standards Code.
“Meh. You’re too good at reading contracts. No thanks, we withdraw our offer.”
Not sure what else to say except perhaps a PSA: If offered a contract, have a lawyer look at it and tell you what it means, and what your rights and obligations are under it.
