atw: OT: Re: Was: ..truth and logic now Ambit contract (longish)

Hi Peter, 

Great to hear of your court success. I'd rather avoid
the complications and stress, particularly as I didn't
suffer any loss in this instance. If I had already
quit my other job or had been out of work, I probably
would've followed up through the courts. In my case, I
think there is good chance of using unconsionable
conduct provisions of consumer protection law, which
looks at "the extent to which the stronger business
was willing to negotiate contract terms with the
target business".

The intital thing that p!ssed me off about the Ambit
contract was the fact that it was printed in about 6
pt font, as if its saying "don't read me".

After their comment about the need to change all the
contracts (BTW, they refused to put that in writing) I
did say to them that I hadn't realised I was
negotiating a workplace agreement for all their
contractors. 

Another thing that raised my ire was the fact that I
applied for the job which was advertised as a 5-month
contract, I had my interview and was told I was the
preferred candidate, then the contract offer said the
duration could not be guaranteed. I guess that's a
fair call with all contracts that have out clauses,
but for that out clause to be one hour...!!!

The reciprocal notice period was a week, and I
indicated that I wanted their notice period to be a
month and I would be happy to match that.

I know the IR case law in terminations is generally
that the notice should match the pay period. However,
Ambit had conveniently circumvented that by not
stating pay periods, but simply said they would pay
invoices within a certain number of days. 

While I probably could have taken the job without
requesting the changes and never have had any
problems, I just didn't want to be part of such a
biased arrangement--both on the morality issue and
just in case. As luck would have it, I am now working
for Rio Tinto, the main competitor to Ambit's client
(BHP).

A worrisome part of the issue is that the BHP job was
to write multi-million dollar contracts for the
outsourcing of mining operations. I wonder how good
someone who accepts such onerous clauses would be at
doing that job. Or did they indeed decide that a
writer was no longer required, thus creating the
prospect of the one-hour contract.

Terry



                
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