New job, but no contract to sign - how dodgy is that?

[NotAllThere]

If there's no (written) contract, how do you know what the rate for the contract is? And how do you know how quickly you'll get paid?

[PAH]

If there's no (written) contract, how do you know what the rate for the contract is? And how do you know how quickly you'll get paid?

It's based on trust!

I can't understand why all the big corporates have lawyers and endless paperwork for the simplest thing. Surely they should all be able to work based on trust.