APSO offers member agencies, and clients of member agencies, assistance with fee disputes. Fee disputes generally occur when the same candidate has been submitted to the same client by two different agencies who both feel that they are due a placement fee. In order to fairly deal with this situation, the APSO Code of Ethical & Professional Practice has a clear Fee Arbitration Formula which they apply to these cases.
Since each case is unique, it is important that the fee dispute is lodged with APSO Ethics Committee, together with a chronological sequence of events and supporting documentary evidence that shows why the agency believes they were the effective cause of the placement and entitled to the fee.

The APSO Code of Ethical & Professional Practice states:

8.1 The party who completed all of the following three (3) steps will usually be regarded as the one who was the effective cause of the placement and therefore entitled to the fee:

(i) Interviewed the Candidate;
(ii) Obtained the Candidate’s permission to release his/her details to that specific Client for that specific vacancy; and
(iii) Obtained the Client’s acceptance of the Candidate as an applicant for that vacancy. Client’s acceptance occurs when the Client acts upon the introduction and this is generally        defined as an interview between the Client and the Candidate that is arranged by the Member at the request of the Client.

In neither party completes all three (3) steps, the Ethics Committee shall use its discretion in making a decision.

8.2 Adherence to all sections of the Code of Best Practice & Ethics will be taken into account when deliberating cases and arriving at decisions.

8.3 Both parties will be required to submit a chronological sequence of events in writing, together with supporting documentation, to the Ethics Committee so that they can objectively and accurately assess the circumstances surrounding the fee dispute.