Instant Dismissal Today

[Peter Loew]

Hi All,

I had been hoping I wouldn't need to visit these forums any time soon, but such is life.

I have had an unfortunate couple of days - I had a car accident on the weekend, and today my client has terminated my contract (5 months in and up for renewal next month), on the grounds that I left a protectively marked document (it's a gov contract) in my drawer at work and did not lock it. Suffice it to say everyone at the Client Co is shocked and appalled, as am I. The powers that be at Client Co stressed it was not my work and that in fact I have received constant praise from my colleagues and this is not the reason for the contract termination. They stressed that due to recent security blunders in government recently they must be strict on security. This I can understand but I have never had any such thing happen to me in my career nor do I believe this kind of treatment is warranted. The person who handled this threatened that if anyone should ask why I left Client Co he would not hesitate to tell them that I do not take security seriously, which felt a bit like a threat to me.

Moreover, my agency said that because it was an instant dismissal, they will not pay me for the 4 weeks (as on the contract I have a 4 week notice period). I can't find anything on my contract pertaining to an instant termination and what happens in this situation. Can somebody help me out here - should the agency pay me for the 4 weeks notice and is there anything I can do as this dismissal did not even involve HR?

The Client Co is a big well known organisation and I am just in shock as to what happened today.

P

[swamp]

Name and shame.

[malvolio]

Totally sympathise, naturally, but sadly I have to agree with the client. A breach is a breach, and sufficient grounds for what they've done. One of the harsh realities of being a freelancer is that if you are chopped for any reason, that's it, nobody owes you anything. Nor do you get support from HR, you are not an employee..

So yes it's a carp place to be right now, but the trick is to get up and start again. Fretting over what's done and dusted will only cause you grief.

[jmo21]

seems pretty harsh to me if it really is as unexpected as you say it it.

Who found the document? was it someone from security that does spot checks?

It all depends on the contract of course, but the common answer to "should i get paid notice" is that there will usually be a clause somewhere that says something like "they are not obliged to pay you if you are not actually doing work".

I suppose it could be worse, they could be suing you or something like that.

[pzz76077]

Bad luck, this thing could happen to anyone, but I suspect there is more to it than it seems...

There is always a gross misconduct and confidentiality clause in contracts, but the main issue you have is if client co wont sign your time sheets then the agency are not obliged to pay you.

If an end client refuses to sign your t/s then the rest of your contract is not worth the paper it is written on unfortunately.

The longer term issue that you have is that this kind of thing will have to be declared if you go for any other government roles where clearance is required, not too sure what impact it will have though.

PZZ

[Peter Loew]

seems pretty harsh to me if it really is as unexpected as you say it it.

Who found the document? was it someone from security that does spot checks?

It all depends on the contract of course, but the common answer to "should i get paid notice" is that there will usually be a clause somewhere that says something like "they are not obliged to pay you if you are not actually doing work".

I suppose it could be worse, they could be suing you or something like that.

Actually it was a guy from security who found it as he went to put something in my desk drawer; he just said be more careful next time and left it at that, he didn't raise anything formal against me and was quite good about it. It is the people on my programme who picked up on it and told someone who told someone who eventually told the big man.

[Peter Loew]

The longer term issue that you have is that this kind of thing will have to be declared if you go for any other government roles where clearance is required, not too sure what impact it will have though.

Does anybody know if this is really the case? How will this affect my next gov contract, if at all?

I should point out, that the doc they found in my drawer was incorrectly marked by someone else when it was actually supposed to be 'Unclassified'. Not sure if this makes a difference...

[Moscow Mule]

I should point out, that the doc they found in my drawer was incorrectly marked by someone else when it was actually supposed to be 'Unclassified'. Not sure if this makes a difference...

I'm pretty sure it doesn't. Sorry.

[BrilloPad]

Thats really unfortunate. Sounds like a really bad deal.

[pzz76077]

Does anybody know if this is really the case? How will this affect my next gov contract, if at all?

I should point out, that the doc they found in my drawer was incorrectly marked by someone else when it was actually supposed to be 'Unclassified'. Not sure if this makes a difference...

The principle idea behind security vetting is to see if you can be trusted with things they would prefer the public not to see...

You may also have issues if you opt for a non gov contract next but end client asks for a reference. I would recommend that you try to find someone in that knows the quality of your work in your last role and ask if they would mind being contacted for a refrence.


PZZ