Recruitment Toolkit

Making Verbal Offers of Employment

Any negotiations on employment conditions must be on a without prejudice basis until such time as an authorised written contract is offered.

Legally binding contracts may be entered into unwittingly with the minimum of formality, eg. through a series of telephone calls.

Specifically, verbal offers of employment with Adelaide University may only be made as follows:

• following authorisation of the appointment
• by the Convenor of the Appointment Committee or their nominee
• on the basis of the term of employment agreed for the position
• with the requisite approval under the University's recruitment policy
• by a person who is in possession of all pertinent facts in relation to the requirements of the terms of the contract.

Even innocent misrepresentation of the terms of contract of employment may allow the party who has been misled to void the contract, and may also be the basis of a claim for damages for negligence, eg. if an applicant resigns from their current position on the basis of the offer.

The law holds that before any contract of employment – simple or otherwise – is enforceable, it must be formed so as to contain various elements. Some of these are:

• there must be an ‘intention’ between the parties to create a legal relationship, the terms of which are enforceable
• there must be an offer by one party and its acceptance by the other
• the parties must genuinely consent to the terms of the contract.