I received information from headhunting company A that company B is looking for an overseas salesperson for an annual salary of KRW 55 million. Company A asked me if I was interested and I submitted my resume by e-mail through company A. After that, I passed the first document screening and finished the interview with the CEO of company B. I sent a text message to company A’s headhunter asking when I could start work, and I received a reply saying that the exact date will soon be fixed. I thought that I had been hired, so I quit my previous job, but I heard from headhunting company A that company B eventually decided not to hire me. In this situation, what actions can I legally take against company B?
If an employment contract with company B is established, termination of the relationship will amount to dismissal, making it possible to apply for remedy for unfair dismissal in accordance with the Labor Standards Act. However, if an employment contract with company B is not established, dismissal cannot be established, making it impossible to request such remedy. So the key to your inquiry is whether an employment contract was established or not.
For a contract to have been established, an objective agreement of the parties and their corresponding declared intentions is required. For objective agreement to be deemed in existence, the parties must mutually assent to all the terms mentioned in their declared intentions. However, even if it is neither an “important term” nor an objective element of the contract, especially when the parties express their intention to make a certain term indispensable and recognize it as a significant requisite for the establishment of a contract, it is necessary to mutually agree on it to establish the validity and legality of the contract. An offer, which is a legal requirement for the establishment of a contract, must be a concrete and definitive statement of the contract as soon as it is verbally accepted. Therefore, an offer should include terms that are necessary to determine the contract.
It is difficult to give an exact answer because the specific details are unknown. However, if there is no notice of final acceptance during the hiring process, and “important terms” such as wage, working hours, place of employment and duties, date of commencement of work, and the probationary period are not mutually agreed upon, it would be difficult to say that an employment contract had been established, even if there was agreement on annual salary.