Agency refusing to honour 28-day notice period

[BrightonBreezy]

hi all,
Glad to be here but a shame that my first post is not a happy one.

I just had my contract terminated after 18 months at an investment bank. The bank was cutting back staff and my project was over-manned.

My agency, Huxley Associates, is now refusing to honour the contractual notice period of 28 days. They claim that they themselves don't have the equivalent notice period with the client so are not going to honour it in my contract.
I use an umbrella company for payroll so the contract is actually between Huxley and the umbrella company.
Of course, I complained greatly to the commercial director but he just hid behind the contract saying it was between Huxley and the umbrella company and therefore nothing to do with me. He's clearly banking on the umbrella company being unwilling to sue them for the notice period on my behalf. What a f***ing crook!!
I've yet to get hold of someone at the umbrella company but they've always been good to me so I don't really want to give them a hard time about it. It's not their fault, after all.

Ironically, while I'm hold waiting for the crooked commercial director to answer the phone, the Huxley phone system is telling me about their exceptional honesty & integrity.

Has anyone got any advice for me?

BB

[max]

hi all,
Glad to be here but a shame that my first post is not a happy one.

I just had my contract terminated after 18 months at an investment bank. The bank was cutting back staff and my project was over-manned.

My agency, Huxley Associates, is now refusing to honour the contractual notice period of 28 days. They claim that they themselves don't have the equivalent notice period with the client so are not going to honour it in my contract.

see a lawyer. Maybe they can send a them a wind up order...that should get them moving.

[chris79]

Get legal advice and sue them for breach of contract or so.

[BrilloPad]

Welcome to cuk and sorry to hear of your issue.

Clearly Huxley, legally or morally, have no leg to stand on.

Sometimes the money/hassle involved is just not worth it and you have to move on.

Hopefully though you can do something involving small claims court - or better still a winding up petition. I think for anything over £1500 you can issue a winding up order.

Who owns Huxley? Are they publicly quoted? Sometimes bad publicity can get them to do the right thing - send them an email with a link to this thread!

If you really feel strongly drop me a PM - I have some unconventional methods not fo the faint hearted - but not illegal either. I have posted these up here before. - but recent police involvement means I dont want to post them and risk a possible ban.

BP

[Crossroads]

What do you mean by "honour the notice period". Do you mean pay you for 28 days regardless of whether you go to work or not?

You're not a permie.

The chances are Huxley are only liable to pay your brolly IF the end client requests that you do some work (and you then do it). So if the end client doesn't want you on site and therefore Huxley will not use your services, ergo nothing to pay, regardless of of whether the contract is still in force or not.

[BrilloPad]

What do you mean by "honour the notice period". Do you mean pay you for 28 days regardless of whether you go to work or not?

You're not a permie.

The chances are Huxley are only liable to pay your brolly IF the end client requests that you do some work (and you then do it). So if the end client doesn't want you on site and therefore Huxley will not use your services, ergo nothing to pay, regardless of of whether the contract is still in force or not.

If that were the cae why have a notice period atall?

There is no suggestion of gross misconduct here.

[pmeswani]

What do you mean by "honour the notice period". Do you mean pay you for 28 days regardless of whether you go to work or not?

You're not a permie.

The chances are Huxley are only liable to pay your brolly IF the end client requests that you do some work (and you then do it). So if the end client doesn't want you on site and therefore Huxley will not use your services, ergo nothing to pay, regardless of of whether the contract is still in force or not.

Have to disagree with this. If you have a contract with a company to provide a service... it is binding in law unless it can be proven otherwise. If misconduct is the reason, then the party at fault will not have a leg to stand on if the contract is terminated with immediate effect.

If the notice period is ineffective, just imagine how many contractors would walk out on a contract as soon as they have been offered a better contract. The agency who put the contractor in the original placement would be up in arms and would consider legal action.

It works both ways.

[Olly]

If that were the cae why have a notice period atall?

exactly...I've just looked through my current and past contracts.
ALL of them don't state the client has to provide work.
In effect the notice periods mean NOTHING!!!!! (well at least from client to you) assuming your contract is fairly standard.

big con in my opinion..when reviewing current contract at renewal I was going to suggest removing it all together as it means NOWT but client and agency both believe it means client will give me a calendar month of working days (minus public hols) when they want me to go. Something they are certainly not contractually obliged to do, but if they think that's what it says who am I to argue

[TheFaQQer]

If that were the cae why have a notice period atall?

There is no suggestion of gross misconduct here.

Well, that's a point that has been discussed here a number of times. If you really want to go through it again, I suggest using the PCG forums, where a former CUK-er will go through it again for you

Chances are that the contract will say that you only get paid for the work that you do - so they could give 28 days notice but tell you not to come in for that time. They are then sticking to the contract - OP gets the notice, but still has no payment, and is worse off since they are then limited in being able to look for another contract at the same time.

Yes, it sucks.

Yes, it's not fair.

However, that's life - suck it up and move onto the next opportunity.

[Beefy198]

Definitely seek legal advice, purely because if they get away with it they'll all try.

Your brolly may not be as motivated as you, but if they are as good as you say I'm sure they'll support your efforts - just don't expect them to be phoning a solicitor on your behalf.