stay away. The English agents are completely unprofessional and exploitive after you start working as a supply. I've experienced it all with these cowards in just one month, before they terminated my contract with false, unproven claims!!! Very glad it ended sooner than later - ended working out for the better. However, this is aside from the purpose of this review and the weeks that I was left without income while applying to other agencies and waiting for a new police check, with zero savings and very little family assistance. I was very close to having enough money for a flat, howevr, bc of the outstanding pay & loss of employment, I was forced to spend what I had saved while living in a hostel for a month, setting me back to square 1, & another long while of living & working out of a hostel. Unanticipated and unjustifiable trauma, to say the least.
In just a month they owed me several days pay, my agent lying that she sent my pay to pay agency, ignored emails/texts, false accusations that I wasn't reachable, all to cancel our Guaranteed Pay contract bc they probably actually didn't have work for me; she insinuated discrimination bc of my living accommodation at the time, she threatened i would void the contract if I didn't accept EA jobs at EA daily rate - not even in the contract; a manager lied that they gave me my Police Check when I signed up (required for future employment - another 2 weeks waiting to start a new job)...
Despite all of the time & effort it took to speak with superior managers to rectify the issue with my agent, all superiors I spoke with sided with my agent and chose NOT to pay me my outstanding pay. My contact in this office NEVER RESPONDED TO MY EMAIL REQUEST FOR SENIOR REP CONTACT INFO IN LONDON, since London reps were not helping. As a result, time was ticking & I was forced to register with other agencies. Finally, after several months of threatening legal action, I got ALMOST all of the days that were owed to me.
They forced all their contractors to use their horrendous pay agency - JSA.
Engage took advantage of my time and qualifications. Contracted me as a teacher with teacher rate, gave me only EA work and pay. It's like they fished me to England with a fair & attractive promise, then totally went against our contract and their promise when I started.
This, aside from the fact that contrary to other agencies out there, they demanded that we be posted at a station for 7:15 am waiting for the LAST MIN assignment, they have an uncompetitive daily rate, and, they got me barely any teaching assignments. Said a lot to me about the people and practices at engage when I saw the grass on the other side. I was sucked in by the "contract" promise. I don't remember if it's even possible to sue a firm in England for breaching a contract that hasn't lasted a certain amount of time. I wish I had looked in to this b4 going to England.
The damage caused by this agency was massively unprofessional and exploitive & too much of this goes unpunished in London. I should have took this agency to court for cancelling our contract with them not having any proof that I was the one who voided any contract terms such as being available for calls in the morning. Also for the damages incurred as a result.
It seems that engage simply did not have enough work for the amount of teachers it picked up for that school year, & despite my ambition, excitement to start my career and investment to go and work overseas, they left me high and dry with no job, no money and no police check to help with a quick employment with another agency. Being poor & vulnerable when employed with engage, I didn't have $$ to go to court at the time of the dispute, however, I very much wish I had looked in to it sooner & learned that there are groups who may have took up the case for free. It was past the 6 month limit to file a suit against them, when I had finally looked in to it.
There are decent agencies out there. Do good research. Sign up to multiple agencies from the start and seek justice where due.
Bad writing = chrctr limit.