Salam u alaikum dear all
I have a business where i source teachers and contract them to my institute, and then i contact clients or they contact me to provide them with a teacher - i charge the client and take a small percentage of the hourly rate to cover my costs and to make a profit.
Many clients try to circumvent (either directly or indirectly) to cut me out and to work directly with the teacher.
This undoubtedly causes me harm and affects my income.
Contracts and clauses aside - is this permissible/ethical?
its impossible for me to build up such loyalty with my contracted teachers that wouldnt leave me to work with the client. somtimes the client will pay for one hour just to test the teacher - to see if they like them then offer them the next 50 hours only if they work direcltly with them. I can imagine its very hard for teachers to say no this.
I do have clauses in the contract to stop teachers from doing this but at the end of the day for a small business i cant afford to take people to court.
This has happened to me a few times and i feel very wronged by both the client and the teacher.
Please advise
JazakAllah khair
Wa alaykum salaam,
It is permissible for the client to approach the teachers directly too for additional lessons.
Similarly, it’s not correct to impose on the teachers who they can teach and who they can’t. Beyond your agreement, they can do as they wish, just as the students can go to whomsoever they want.
Allah knows best
Jazak Allah khair sheikh
Please expand on your answer as circumvention will always harm the middle man. No middle man business can survive if the clients and teachers work together.
Clauses can be added into the contract with the teacher to prevent them from doing this. This is quite common with say locum dentists to prevent the dentist from taking all the patients with them when they leave.
The client usually doesn’t sign a contract as they are employing my company to hire a teacher for a short period of time.
So are you saying it’s ethical and and honest and Permissible to deliberately cut the middle man out?
I have been harmed many times by this. If it is permissible how do I Islamically prevent this?
Otherwise it’s simply not possible for my business to survive.
Jazak Allah khair