contract terminated without notice

[northernladuk]

Thank you.

I can add, categorically, it was not due to poor performance! I am an extremely hard working individual who has been praised throughout the year by staff, colleagues and line manager in review meetings.

I was handling multiple large projects and being tasked with additional work every single week.
I by far had the biggest workload of the 4 contractors and this was all reviewed within the past 7days by the manager who let me go unexpectedly.

Regards

Sounds like you need to understand IR35 and it's implications to me. Multiple projects, additional work? Disguised employee territory that. I would take a long hard look at your contract, your working conditions and the way you handle yourself at your client. Being part and parcel isn't how a contractor works.

There are two sides to every story I am afraid and being a yes man isn't always a good thing. If you are there to do a particular piece of work and you take on too much it's very easy not to deliver to expected timeless on the piece of work you were originally given. Yes men on projects can be a bit of a nightmare. The other contractors might not have been as hard working but they are just getting their head down and delivering what they should, no more no less. Food for thought maybe.

No one that is canned on performance related reasons believe they are at fault as well.....

[northernladuk]

A little bit of me wishes clients and agents would be a bit smarter and use other valid reasons to cut a contractors costs if they need to i.e. just tell him there is no work and let the contract expire while he isn't working. Same outcome without all the cloak and daggers carry on...

A much bigger bit of me is glad they don't for obvious reasons......

[TheFaQQer]

Sounds like you need to understand IR35 and it's implications to me. Multiple projects, additional work? Disguised employee territory that.

Rubbish. Contractors can be engaged for a number of different roles, and it's not uncommon for those roles to operate concurrently. To assume that this has an immediate IR35 consequence could be a dangerous assumption - haven't you just been commenting elsewhere about how if you are working on more than one project you should have it in the contract???

[quackhandle]

A little bit of me wishes clients and agents would be a bit smarter and use other valid reasons to cut a contractors costs if they need to i.e. just tell him there is no work and let the contract expire while he isn't working. Same outcome without all the cloak and daggers carry on...

A much bigger bit of me is glad they don't for obvious reasons......

Clients hold the power and we are just mere pawns to do their bidding (but not D&C, obviously).

We need a contractor equivalent of the Bosman Ruling. Any Belgian contractors out there?

qh

[TheFaQQer]

What I would do ...

1. Go out on real bender and get it out my system.
2. Hit the market for a new contract
3. Raise an invoice for the notice period, send it on. Let them dispute it. This is nice IR35 indicator as you now have an unpaid invoice.
4. They will have to dispute the invoice, if they don't and try to do this on the phone or just ignore you. Go for debt collection.
5. If they dispute, file a small claims summons. At the very least they Pimp/client will need to give a proper reason. You can point out the numerous renewals and complete lack of communication to back your legitimate claim that your work was not below par.

-- I would bet that you will win the case for the invoice --

They don't need to give a reason. They have terminated the contract in line with the clauses in there, so they don't need to do any more.

Anything else is a waste of time and money.

[northernladuk]

Rubbish. Contractors can be engaged for a number of different roles, and it's not uncommon for those roles to operate concurrently. To assume that this has an immediate IR35 consequence is naive at best - haven't you just been commenting elsewhere about how if you are working on more than one project you should have it in the contract???

It's not rubbish, it's an assumption based on what the OP has put and the fact he doesn't even understand his contract. They can work on concurrent projects IF they are documented and properly and you understand what you are doing and your relationship to the client. A contractor that doesn't understand his contract and puts this info down rings some very big alarm bells. Being tasked with additional work kinda speaks volumes as well. The word tasked makes me think about D&C as well. Wasn't it you that said he should accept the work, not have it given?

I did comment he should have it in his contract and I stand by this. The fact the guy doesn't know what is in his contract makes me believe it won't be.

Being mindful or working practice and relation to contract is hardly naïve, a wild assumption but not naïve. Naïve is to ignore the situation and not question it.

[northernladuk]

What I would do ...

1. Go out on real bender and get it out my system.
2. Hit the market for a new contract
3. Raise an invoice for the notice period, send it on. Let them dispute it. This is nice IR35 indicator as you now have an unpaid invoice.
4. They will have to dispute the invoice, if they don't and try to do this on the phone or just ignore you. Go for debt collection.
5. If they dispute, file a small claims summons. At the very least they Pimp/client will need to give a proper reason. You can point out the numerous renewals and complete lack of communication to back your legitimate claim that your work was not below par.

-- I would bet that you will win the case for the invoice --

Rubbish. How can you raise an invoice against a non existent contract? Utter waste of time. You need to argue the contract first and then raise the invoice. Using an invalid invoice isn't going to achieve anything, IR35 or possible payment wise.

[Unix]

Thank you.

I can add, categorically, it was not due to poor performance! I am an extremely hard working individual who has been praised throughout the year by staff, colleagues and line manager in review meetings.

I was handling multiple large projects and being tasked with additional work every single week.
I by far had the biggest workload of the 4 contractors and this was all reviewed within the past 7days by the manager who let me go unexpectedly.

Regards

We all live in our own bubble of perception, you may have been working hard but that still doesn't mean you were performing well. If your current contract says 30 days notice I would fight for it.

[TheFaQQer]

I did comment he should have it in his contract and I stand by this. The fact the guy doesn't know what is in his contract makes me believe it won't be.

So you believe that if you work on multiple projects and they aren't named projects on the contract, then this indicates that the contractor is inside IR35?

There is a HUGE difference between having the role details in the contract (which is fairly easy to understand) and the legalese of the actual contract - indeed, when I had a similar contract checked by Qdos they picked up and corrected the IR35 bits but did not comment on the part that would have allowed the consultancy to terminate because they were "unsatisfied".

And getting terminated for no reason, with no notice, and no pay off kind of blows the disguised employee argument out of the water.

[northernladuk]

So you believe that if you work on multiple projects and they aren't named projects on the contract, then this indicates that the contractor is inside IR35?

No, I believe by doing this and being ignorant of why put's him at risk and is quite possibly just one issue of many and he needs to brush up on his understanding of IR35 PDQ. You know me better than that. Being given new tasks every week certainly has to raise flags.

There is a HUGE difference between having the role details in the contract (which is fairly easy to understand) and the legalese of the actual contract - indeed, when I had a similar contract checked by Qdos they picked up and corrected the IR35 bits but did not comment on the part that would have allowed the consultancy to terminate because they were "unsatisfied".

Quite possibly and as I said in previous posts it's ok as long as you know what you are doing to a certain extent. I strongly suspect the OP doesn't and is the tip of the iceberg so worth mentioning to him to point it out. I have worked with so many contractors that just turn up and do what they are told and don't even know what IR35 is. I don't see why I shouldn't point it out to the OP for further research. Arguing the details of it with someone like yourself that knows the in's and out's isn't going to get anywhere. To point it out to a contractor that doesn't have a clue is good advice IMO. Doing what you are told to with no consideration of IR35 and how you should be working puts you at risk. My comments are purely to a contractor that probably doesn't know, not to experienced ones who are well aware and manage their affairs properly.

And getting terminated for no reason, with no notice, and no pay off kind of blows the disguised employee argument out of the water.

Indeed, he has a get out of jail card this time but that isn't reason enough to not point out the situation to the OP. If he hadn't he would still be (possibly) at risk and worse still ignorant to the situation for future engagements.

The difference in our approaches is you assume the OP knows all these points you are making. I do not.