Hi Uncle Chung,
A friend of mine found a job at a clinic through a job agency.
She signed a contract with the agency.
One of the terms states that she needs to work for at least 3 months.
She informed her boss at the clinic that she would resign in a month (leaving the company in mid-April, she would have worked a total of 3 months, from mid-Jan to mid-April), which is a common practice here in Singapore.
The agency called her today and informed her that the notification period (from mid-March to mid-April) should not be considered as part of the 3 months. She was very shocked as the agent only told her that she needs to work for at least 3 months. She was not aware of the claimed "notification period". She dug out her signed contract. Only then did she realise it.
Q1: Is it common for a job agency to draft such a term? Is it legal?
Q2: Since the agent had not pointed out this unusual term (the so-called addtional notification month), does it constitute "misrepresentation"?
Q3: If the job agency insists her to pay for "breaching" the contract, what can she do? (The liquidation damage is to pay one-month salary.)
Thank you very much for reading it. We look forward to hearing from you soonest possible.
Regards,
DJ