Does this sound fair to any of you?

My niece's friend signed a contract, supposed to start on Monday. Well, the agency says the hospital wants to postpone her start date by a week. So, that means no work and no pay for a week. That would be bad enough, but they also won't let her move into their housing until then unless she pays for it. Don't you think a good company would at least put her up in housing without charging her when the mistake is theirs?

mowhite

If the contract is signed and includes the dates I don't think they can just arbitrarily change it to suit them.

The agency can't hold the hospital to anything, because the hospital can cancel the contract with notice in most cases. The hospital can easily cancel the contract period, and get another traveler. The agency would not be in business long, if they gave away money. The deal is, the hospital has cancelled the contract this person signed, and the friend should find another contract instead of waiting on that hospital. JMO

I the hospital cancels the contract with the agency it doesn't cancel the contract the agency has with the nurse...right?

The hospital tells the agency, we want this nurse, and then the agency signs the nurse to the contract, for that particular hospital. If the hospital doesn't want the nurse, then there is no contract.

The agency wouldn't be in business long if they routinely gave away money, but this doesn't sound like a routine situation to me. They're also not going to be in business long if word gets out that they can jam you up like this.

They didn't cancel the contract, they just postponed the start date by one week. I understand the agency has no control over that part. My point is I don't think it's right for an agency to tell their nurse this 3 days before she's supposed to start working AND try to charge her for the housing. They are the ones who screwed up about the start date (I don't think the hospital didn't know when they were running their orientation days). I suspect they did this on purpose because they knew she was going to take a contract with another company if they couldn't get her an assignment that started soon enough.

It's a shame because I actually told my niece about this company based on the positive word of mouth from some posters on this bb and she recommended them to her friend. Her friend will still have to work the contract, but my niece is taking an assignment with another company. I'm sure neither of them will ever work for the company again and I certainly won't or ever recommend them to anyone. I would wash old men's dirty underwear for minimum wage before I'd work for a company like that.

The agency would not be in business long, if they gave away money.

I don't think it makes good business sense for word of things like this to get out either. They have lost at least two future contracts over it: my niece and another friend of hers. They had both signed up, done all the paperwork and were planning on taking an assignment with that company in the near future. Now neither one of them will. I don't think that was worth the few hundred they would have had to pay to house one traveller for a week until her new start date.

I can't say how glad I am that I took my assignment with Emerald Health Services! No bs like this from them...

If your niece's friend already left to drive out to the facility, upon word of the agency, then they should pay for the housing, but be aware that housing doesn't usually start until the day before the assignment begins.

And personally, it also sounds like the agency screwed up, if they use this facility regularly, then they know the dates of the orientation.

Did she actually have a signed contract in hand with those original dates? If so, then the agency is responsible for it. The contract is with the agency, not the facility.

Yes, she had the signed contract in hand. She had faxed and sent it earlier in the week. After a lot of arguing they have finally agreed to house her for free starting Sunday since she was supposed to start Monday. She was supposed to be allowed to move in Friday, but she'll just spend the weekend at my niece's. She had come from another state already when they told her about this change. If she had been a less assertive person, they would have charged her. I think that's completely unprofessional and just plain wrong.

That's what I thought about the contract too (that it was with the agency). It's actually an agency you've posted positively about several times, which is what really surprises me about the whole thing. Maybe it's just the individual recruiter that really matters in this type of situation. I don't understand how they could not know the orientation dates since they have been pushing this hospital to my niece and her friend for weeks. I'm very glad my niece didn't accept it, but that's only because she knew she had a job to fall back on if she couldn't find a better position (it would be a really long commute for her and she found a closer job with the same travel company I'm using).

no doubt about it , the agency is not being very supportive and understanding with their new employee who plans on making them lots of money. is there anyway you can say the name of the agency for those who are looking to avoid them?

[color=yellow]go steelers!!!!!

I don't know if I'm allowed to post that kind of thing here or not. I can pm you if you want to know.