Staffing agency lied to me and cost me a chance at a real job - what to do?

Factual Questions
1

I need to know if I have any legal recourse against a staffing agency that lied to me to get me to take a position that caused me to miss out on a real job.

I had been registered with R Staffing (not their real name) since early 2005, and in the past they got me quite a bit of work, most temporary, but the last job they got me ended up going permanent and I was happy there until earlier this year when I got laid off. I have since been looking for work, but R Staffing hadn’t found anything for me.

Another agency, H Technologies (not their real name) found my resume on Monster.com and had contacted me about a contract-to-hire position doing technical support. It paid only $12.50 an hour to start, but after 90 days I’d be hired at a $30K/year salary. They seemed to think I was a good fit for the job and it did sound interesting. I had a preliminary interview that went well, and H Technologies wanted me to do a background check and a drug screening before a final interview this last Tuesday. I was a little nervous about this because I have some warrants for a couple of unpaid tickets. I was pretty sure I could pee clean for the drug test, as it had been over a month since I had smoked any MJ and I don’t do any other drugs, but I wasn’t 100% sure I’d pass because I read that some tests can get positives up to 60 days after last usage.

Late Monday afternoon I went to the clinic to submit the urine sample after drinking plenty of fluids, and while waiting I got a call from H Technologies saying my interview was delayed until Wednesday. I asked if I could put off the urine screening until Tuesday morning, because the clinic said it would be an hour and a half wait and it would be quicker if I came in early, and she said it was no trouble as long as I got my sample in by Tuesday afternoon. On my way back to the car I got a call from R Staffing saying they had a position for me starting on Tuesday morning that paid $13 an hour. It was doing data entry, which I am really good at (I can type more than 100 WPM), but it wouldn’t be as interesting as the job H Technologies offered. Now, I’ve been in a tight situation financially and really liked the idea of being able to get some work done immediately, even if it was only temporary, and I was hesitant to turn down R Staffing when there was a chance I might fail the background or drug test for H Technologies. So I called my rep at H Technologies back and explained that I had an immediate temporary position available to me, but I would not be able to get to the interview on Wednesday and wanted to see if I could go ahead and give the pee that evening but reschedule the interview. She told me that they could not reschedule the interview, and she said that I shouldn’t give up the offer because of a temporary position as the one she was offering was guaranteed to go permanent. I told her I would call her back, and I called R Staffing back and explained that I had an interview for a permanent position on Wednesday and I hated to give up a permanent job for a temporary position, even if the temp position did pay more initially. My rep with R Staffing then told me that the position they wanted me to work was temp-to-perm. I was now faced with a choice between two jobs, one that was more interesting but not 100% certain, or a 100% certain position that paid slightly more to start with that starts immediately. I called H Technologies back and told her, and she tried to talk me into changing my mind, but I told her I couldn’t pass on the offer to go to work immediately for more money. She cancelled my interview and told me I didn’t need to give the urine sample anymore.

So I go to work the next morning at Y Corporation, and things are going OK. They mentioned in passing that the last person that R Staffing sent had absolutely no accounts payable experience even though that’s what they asked for. I don’t have any direct AP experience myself, but I have worked in a couple of client relations positions where I had to work closely with AP and I knew my way around an invoice well enough to fake it. Things went fairly well all week, and then this Friday when I went to turn in my timecard I asked the lady in HR about how long it would be before I went permanent.

She said that the position was completely temporary. She said I was the third person that R Staffing sent to them who was told by R Staffing that the position was temp-to-perm, but their company never did temp-to-perm contracts with R Staffing - they sometimes hired temps, but it was through the normal application process. She asked about my AP experience, and I admitted that I had none. She was very apologetic to me, even though it wasn’t her fault, and she called up R Staffing right then to speak to my rep, but she wasn’t in. She told me she’d be furious with R Staffing if she was me after I explained that I had turned down a permanent position because of what they said, and said that she would sue them if she was me. They are continuing to keep me there as a temp for now, but she said if I wanted to apply with Y Corporation I should apply for a different department, even though I am working out well in AP they really only hire people with accounting experience for that department.

So what can I do? I’d really like to get back at R Staffing for lying to me and potentially costing me a job, but I doubt I have sufficient grounds for a lawsuit. I have nothing in writing from R Staffing saying they told me this was a temp-to-perm job, and I’m sure my representative will just deny it on Monday when she comes in (me and the HR lady with Y Corporation both spoke to her supervisor about it on the phone). It’s not like I had the other job for sure, anyway. What should I do?

2

I am a professional have used all kinds of temp, contracting, and contract to perm agencies over the years with results that were anything from beyond incompetent lying weasels to great ones. Life rule #131: Never trust a staffing agency. They lie. I have been told by them that I had a professional job when I didn’t, that I was the first choice for the company when another prospect (of theirs) already had an offer pending. Early on, I was asked to sign a meaningless piece of paper that promised I would only speak to the headhunter at hand and no one else (that one actually got me a decent job oddly enough). Most of them are pure scum and a necessary evil at best. You can carefully befriend ones you see as good but never fully trust any of them. They make their money by serving the client and not you. You are a commodity to them and they are free to manipulate you.

You can’t do anything. They screw people over like that every day. There is no real proof and you probably don’t have enough legal funds to go up against an actual company.

3

^^^^ This is the part you need to do differently if you are ever in a similar situation again.

If you are able to get another job in a reasonable period of time, you might consider reporting the temp agency to the Better Business Bureau and/or State Department of Labor. I don’t see much likelihood that this would result in any settlement to you, but like anything if a lot of complaints come in someone might eventually investigate and spur them to change their practice. You might also take it up the management chain at the temp agency to get your specific rep in trouble. But right now anything you do sounds like it would be biting the hand that feeds you.

4

I shouldn’t be so hard on all of them. Once when I was down and out, a Boston area contracting company called me up about an IT job in the headquarters of a famous company with an offer for an interview the next day. A high-level headhunter drove 30 miles and met with me half an hour before the interview and then accompanied me to an interview with a Vice-President at this mega-corp. I got the contract instantly and the contracting agency was outstanding at keeping in touch even driving out 30 miles to take me to lunch for various mile-stones. The contract ended through no fault of my own and we had a severe family tragedy a few months later. The people at the contracting agency made donations to charity in my family’s name even though it isn’t clear that I will ever see or work for them again.

For two agencies, I met with them for 15 minutes, they placed me and I never heard from them again except for faxing in time-sheets. There is no problem with that either. It means you become instantly assimilated with the regular employees and no one makes a distinction. I had my current job as a contractor for a year and no one made any distinction except that I had to take massive paycut when they offered me a permanent job.

However that is just 3 good experiences out of literally over 100 over the years. The percentage is pretty poor and it is best not to trust any of them unless you have built that trust over time.

5

Nothing is certain until your 1st day and even then, not so much.

Unless you have a signed contract stating thus&such, you have nothing, I am sorry.

6

I note some things in your tale that tended to work against you:
[ul]Some outstanding tickets[/ul]
[ul]Recent marijuana use[/ul]
[ul]Financially strapped[/ul]

The first two made you less than 100% sure you’d pass pre-employment screening. Combined with #3 they made you a bit more likely to go for the offer of the second, less interesting temp-to-perm job. If you could eliminate the pressure these factors produce, the next round might go better.