The question
If I find an excellent candidate that I would like to appoint for job B when interviewing for job A, could I withdraw the advert for job B and give the post to the person on the job A list?
Both jobs offer the same salary, have the same requirements and are temporary. The closing date for Job B is in one week, but I would rather cancel it and appoint this person.
The legal verdict
Esther Smith, partner at Thomas Eggar
If there is no incumbent in job B yet, I don’t see any problem in pulling the advert and offering the position to the candidate that you have found. Just in case, however, you might want to check that the candidate wants to accept job B before pulling the advert as, if they reject the offer, you will be back to the starting blocks in filling the post.
Esther Smith is a partner in Thomas Eggar‘s Employment Law Unit.
Adam Partington, solicitor at Speechly Bircham
An employer must not discriminate in their arrangements for advertising jobs or in how they select a candidate for a role.
Assuming that there are no grounds for discrimination (such as pregnancy, maternity, disability, race, age, sex, sexual orientation etc), you have not offered the job to anyone else, and this process is not taking place in the context of any kind of restructuring or redundancy process, then withdrawing the advert is unlikely to be an issue – and nor is offering post B to applicant A.
However, are you sure that applicant A will accept the offer of a job that they have not applied for? If not, you may like to have an alternative candidate in place to whom you could offer the role if applicant A turns you down, in which case withdrawing the job advert now could be premature.
Adam Partington is a solicitor at Speechly Bircham LLP.
