Senior 2D Animator Yulia Osmak accuses Innovecs of stealing her time and seeks compensation from the company for the time spent completing test tasks and a signed offer that the employer withdrew.
(The news is supplemented with a comment from the company).
Senior 2D Animator Yulia Osmak accuses Innovecs of stealing her time and seeks compensation from the company for the time spent completing test tasks and a signed offer that the employer withdrew.
(The news is supplemented with a comment from the company).
«The personnel policy (Seniour 2D Animator vacancy) of the Innovecs company is as follows:
«The company stole a month of my time, forced me to refuse alternative offers, and canceled the vacancy a few days before the start of work, refusing any responsibility (the offer was signed long ago). For my part, I agreed to complete two test runs for them and wait a month to start work. Having caused me significant losses, the company offered nothing but a 'sincere apology,'» the specialist wrote, attaching screenshots of correspondence with the employer’s representative to the post.
According to Yulia, she signed the offer on January 9 (the screenshot shows a mistake, the specialist emphasizes). She was supposed to start work on February 3, but on January 28, the company withdrew the offer.
However, no contract was signed between the employer and the candidate, only the offer was accepted. The girl offered to «work under the standard scheme of dismissal at the initiative of the employer by agreement of the parties,» so that the company would compensate her with one salary for the time she was waiting to start work, since having accepted the offer from Innovecs, Yulia refused other cooperation options.
The specialist also emphasizes that she is ready to initiate legal proceedings to obtain financial compensation.
She initiated a meeting with the company’s CEO, but he has not been able to get through. «There is really no reaction from the CEO, including after I asked the VO of talents to convey my desire to talk,» Yulia noted .
Under the animator’s post, IT workers wish her to receive compensation, and in the meantime, they remind her that a job offer in Ukraine has no legal force. Therefore, the company could only have paid the compensation voluntarily and to avoid unnecessary noise around this story.
In turn, Anna Naidanova, Senior HRM, with Yulia’s permission, analyzed this case in detail from the legal side.
In short, two test runs were completed, an offer was signed, but a few days before the start of cooperation, the offer was withdrawn.
The company is looking for an individual entrepreneur, not an employee, the contact was not signed, and the offer has no legal force. The company does not have to compensate for losses for the rejection of other offers. Cooperation with an individual entrepreneur indicates that the individual entrepreneur has many clients, and the client is not responsible for refusing to cooperate with others, a contract with other terms of interaction was not signed.
In contrast, if we had an officially registered full-time employee under the Labor Code and he needed to be laid off, there would be significant compensation (especially in the event of a layoff). I emphasize once again that there were no legal obligations here.
Two test cases completed, opportunities for collaboration with others rejected, and a return to the original search point. It’s a shame that this happened, but it’s nice that the searcher first tried to talk to company representatives and only then publicly presented the case.
There is no question of compensation for damages, but there are 2 successfully completed test cases. If an offer was made, then the technical specifications were clearly well executed and it would be fair to demand payment for it.
Unfortunately, there are indeed situations when clients refuse to cooperate and there is no need to cooperate with certain specialists. Legally, the truth is on the company’s side, but here the problems with communication and working with the employer’s brand are clearly visible. It is useless to expect that the Junior Recruiter could resolve this case on her own. A specialist on vacation could resolve the situation much easier and faster — she started communicating with the searcher perfectly and abruptly ended the communication, handing the pass to the recruiter. The CEO, who was directly tagged in the comments, also has an interesting position. Perhaps the situation is not being resolved publicly, but it is unlikely, because most likely the company would ask to delete the post.
Unfortunately, situations with the withdrawal of offers are not uncommon. Even more often, situations arise when, after signing offers, searchers refuse to cooperate. It can happen differently, but it is extremely important to have mutual respect for each other and be able to comment competently. This situation could have been resolved outside the public space and have the opportunity to cooperate in the future.
UPD. dev.ua reached out to Innovecs for comment. Here’s what they replied.
«This is an exceptional case for us, as we strive to ensure stability and transparency in the hiring process. Yulia was an ideal candidate for this vacancy, successfully completed the test tasks, and we were happy to offer her to join the project team. However, after that, unforeseen changes occurred in the contract with the customer, and the project was suspended. Due to these circumstances, we were unfortunately forced to withdraw the offer.
We understand that this situation is unacceptable for the candidate and sincerely regret that we were unable to implement the cooperation. Throughout the entire period, we stayed in touch with Yulia, promptly informed her of the changes, explained their reasons and offered support in finding new opportunities. As a company, we were also ready to recommend her for similar vacancies on the market.
The company’s management representatives were open to dialogue: the Talent Acquisition Director made an additional call with Yulia to personally answer all questions and once again express our apologies.
We are learning from this situation and continuing to improve our processes to minimize the risks of similar incidents in the future.»
