Operating by the small print

I was recently informed by a company that the reason they did not offer the service I assumed was a key element in their service provision was because they excluded it in the ‘small print’ of their terms and conditions. This made me reflect on how everyone in business relies so much on a document that barely anyone ever reads.

How many times have we all ticked the box to say we have read terms and conditions when we have not done so – being so intent on completing the transaction?  Yet the whole process is one of constant deception – based on a continual fear of litigation and a reliance on consumer apathy.  Since 1994 an EU directive has allowed the courts to assess the fairness of terms in consumer contracts, but not the price of goods or services. Similarly, employers are not liable for anything they put in the small print of an employment contract provided basic statutory rights are not infringed.

But  we may conclude, employees generally read their employment contracts before they sign them. Yet, do they?  One method for concealing such terms is to hide them away in an employee handbook and simply add a clause in the contact referring employees to the hefty tome. Only a few countries, such as France, require employment-related documents to be written in the native language of the country to which they apply – so linguistic barriers can add to the opaqueness of company policies.  So what does your company stash away in its employee small print and what must happen to make the submerged clauses surface?

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