The pressure to sign potentially dangerous contracts is definitely on the increase, according to recruiters attending an Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) members meeting yesterday.

The agenda was ‘Resisting pressure to sign non-standard liability clauses’, and the debate tackled the issue from both the staffing agency and managed service/recruitment process outsourcing perspective.

The panel and 66 attending members were unanimous in concluding that contracts that included clauses that could potentially ruin businesses should be renegotiated.

Frances Lewis, partner from Blake Lapthorn solicitors and one of the five panellists, said there were a lot of non-standard contracts out there.

“The pressure comes if you’ve been told ‘everyone else has signed it’. There is still scope to carve out clauses you’re not liable for. If you don’t try, you don’t get.”

The meeting also agreed that there was actually a greater risk to agencies resulting from workers’ claims for redundancy, discrimination or other employment rights.

For more details, see Recruiter, 1 April.