What does Opt Out Mean in a Contract?

[Dynamic]

My agency has given me a new contract and there is an "Opt Out" section. Should I sign this? what does it mean?

I read from here but didn't understand much what it means in my case.

Many thanks,

[Wanderer]

My agency has given me a new contract and there is an "Opt Out" section. Should I sign this? what does it mean?

I read from here but didn't understand much what it means in my case.

The agency would be delighted if you sign away your legal rights but there is absolutely no obligation on you to do this and some very good reasons not to sign the opt out. If you don't fully understand what legislation is about then I strongly recommend that you don't sign the opt out. Just read the last paragraph of the explanation you linked to:

"Overall, I find it difficult to see that there is any sound commercial reason why a contractor providing services through an agency would wish to opt out of the new regulations."

There are a number of discussions about it here, though it's difficult to do a forum search for the term "opt out" here because the search function thinks it's too short. Try googling for:

• site:forums.contractoruk.com opt out

and you will find sad stories from people who opted out and got locked into 12 month tie-ins with the agency and such like which wouldn't have been valid had they declined to opt out.

[SueEllen]

and you will find sad stories from people who opted out and got locked into 12 month tie-ins with the agency and such like which wouldn't have been valid had they declined to opt out.

Depending on how the tie-ins where worded they are generally a restrain of trade if they are that long.

However as Wanderer said - Don't Opt Out

That way you don't need to worry about clauses that may or may not be a restrain of trade.

In addition you won't have to worry or argue about the opt-out not being valid at a later date if there are problems such as payment issues.

To be honest if the agent is really worried about your company (or you if you work via an umbrella) providing the client services via another agency then they should put the clause in the contract between them and the end-client. This is easier than getting contractors to opt-out.