# Job offered,accepted & then retracted!?



## mickytee81 (8 May 2004)

*Job offered,accepted & then retracted!?*

My sister was offered a position marking junior cert papers this summer after applying for the position. she is soon to be qualified in Home Economics teaching and that is the subject she would be marking, obviously..
She received a confirmation letter of the position from the department of education. They have now called her months later to say that her course did not cover a certain area and that she would be taken off the list!!

In the meantime she has turned down employment in a place she worked last year and with so few weeks until the summer holidays she is unlikely to get suitable work when she is finished.

It would be my opinion that they cannot do this. As a result of receiving written confirmation and then the offered being retracted (over the phone) she is going to suffer loss of earnings.

Is anyone aware of the legal position in this situation?


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## rainyday (9 May 2004)

Have you checked the 'small print' on the original offer letter - Was there any 'subject to' clauses? I heard of one similar case where an offer was withdrawn following references checks, but as the original offer was 'subject to reference checks', there was nothing the job-hunter could do.


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## Brendan Burgess (9 May 2004)

Hi Mickeytee

What are you proposing? That someone who has not been trained properly to correct papers should be allowed to correct them? 

I am asking this because it seems that the Department have made a correct decision. Your sister's course doesn't cover the area to be examined. It would be very unfair on the students to have their life's work examined by someone unsuitable.

Brendan


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## Aquila (9 May 2004)

Is she getting her home economics teaching degree from an Irish college? If so it seems very odd that she wouldn't have covered the entire Junior Cert syllabus.


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## mickytee81 (10 May 2004)

Thanks for the replies

Brendan my query was not whether the Department of Educations marking system is correct or leaves something to be desired. The fact is newly qualified teachers commonly mark the papers.

The essence of the query is that with full knowledge of my sister's qualifications they offered her a position marking junior cert papers. On her acceptance of this offer they issued her with a letter of confirmation of the position and now months later are retracting this over the phone. 

Does she simply have to take this or having written confirmation does she have grounds to dispute the retraction??


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## smree (10 May 2004)

I know this is a bit off topic but I find it very worrying that newly qualified teachers mark papers. I always assumed that this was something done by experienced teachers.


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## Zed (10 May 2004)

*Marking papers*

This is standard practice.  Remember, these people are marking papers, not correcting papers.  The difference may be subtle, but important.

A teacher / lecturer / TA will correct essays / test etc during the course of an academic year.  They will tell you where you went wrong, give suggestions and recommend reading x,y or z.

Exams don't get corrected, they get marked.  The marker will have defined parameters in which to work, looking for the depth and breadth of knowledge depending on strict criteria.  In this respect, it is quite widespread that anyone with experience of marking one type of paper, is capable of marking another within the same broad field.  Naturally, science subjects are the exception, where the content is very specialised and the notaqtions different.


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## mickytee81 (11 May 2004)

*Job offer*

Thanks for that Zed.

Now that that has been cleared up any information on the legal position regarding having written confirmation of a job and then a verbal retraction?


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## Guest (11 May 2004)

*Job offer*

Until there's a legally binding contract of employment in place and signed by both parties (employer and employee) then I'd imagine that either party can pull out of the agreement such as it stands at that stage without penalty. The DETE might be able to give more authoritative advice on the matter though:

www.entemp.ie/employment/rights/


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## CM (12 May 2004)

*..*

Isn't it a great country all the same where teachers get paid a full annual salary for about 300 hours teaching time a year, and then have the cheek to ask for even more money to mark exams for a few weeks into their very generous Summer holidays.

God bless the public sector unions.


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## VeryBrokeStudent (12 May 2004)

*Job offered,accepted & then retracted!?*

Your sister applied for the job, and was issued confirmation that her application was successful. This IS a legally binding contract of employment. When the unregistered user stated:

"Until there's a legally binding contract of employment in place and signed by both parties (employer and employee) then I'd imagine that either party can pull out of the agreement such as it stands at that stage without penalty."

s/he is mistaken. Just because your sister has no WRITTEN contract does not mean that she does not have a legally binding contract. She has, it was oral. This would, however, be in the absence of information (the terms) provided by the department and that it is very unlikely that your sister did not receive these already. She needs to look at the terms of this which might state that the contract is subject to a the fulfillment of further conditions -eg- checks on the topics she has studied. In this case she would be out of luck.


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## Tall Chapy (13 May 2004)

*Contract of employment.*

Verybrokestudent is quite correct.

The negotiation concluded once she got a letter of confirmation.
There was definite offer and definite acceptance.
So in my opinion she has a valid contract. As VBS has implied check the offer and confirmation to see if the contract was conditional.

There was agreement, the department offered the job and she accepted in return for a wage.

Was a date set for her to start?. My advice would be to get your sister to send a letter to the relevent people at the department insisting that she start in her position.(demand 'Specific Performance' - demanding that the contract be carried out). If this does not happen, take a case against the department for misrepresentation. In other words they committed to a contract where they could not carry out what they offered or did not have a job to offered her.


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## Guest (13 May 2004)

*Job offered,accepted & then retracted!?*

Once again I stand corrected!   Better correct than sorry though.


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## ajapale (13 May 2004)

Hi <>,

The Jesuits used to say better to seek forgiveness that to seek permission.

aja


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