HELP!, agent threatening to take legal action over notice period.

[Epiphone]

Yeah buit it doesn't make it right and considering the percentage they take on my day rate my attitude is the agency works for me. My agent, Parity, is never late. I find it unacceptable whether common or not.

With the greatest of respect you're simply looking for someone to support your argument and that way lies madness.

Your husband took a contract and accepted the legal ramifications and liabilities therein. Forget the agency messing him about and paying late, they're seperate issues that should have been addressed, erm, seperatly.

Agencies don't work for you, you contract to them and they sub you out to the end client. Whether you find it unacceptable or not doesn't change the fact that in 99% of cases the agency find the clinet, finds the work and uses a contractor to do the actual work.

To bring this full circle your husband agreed to complete X amount of work over Y days and give 28 days notice if wanting to leave. He either signed a piece of paper to agree to that or walked on site and started working thus accepting the contractual terms offered. Jump up and down and bleat about it being unfiar all you like it's tough to be honest.

If the agency does sue they'll probably win. Why not be a bit more grown up, accept your husband isn't in the right here and offer to pay their margin for the time they couldn't bill. If they accept then count your lucky stars and try to approach legal obligations with a bit more maturity next time. All this guff about how the contract was underpaid is frankly rubbish. £200 per day is a lot better than the dole.

[SueEllen]

If the agency does sue they'll probably win. Why not be a bit more grown up, accept your husband isn't in the right here and offer to pay their margin for the time they couldn't bill. If they accept then count your lucky stars and try to approach legal obligations with a bit more maturity next time. All this guff about how the contract was underpaid is frankly rubbish. £200 per day is a lot better than the dole.

It's actually easy to get the agent to go away without paying but if the poster's husband interacts with the agency like she has with posters here, he will get their back up and they may pursue legal action even if it costs them to prove a point.

[DonkeyRhubarb]

If the new contract is much better paid then surely the obvious thing to do, as someone else has already suggested, is to offer to compensate the agency for 2 weeks lost fees.

Before you pick a fight over this, ask yourself if it's worth it. It might be better to concede and move on.

[MarillionFan]

As Sue Ellen say. Get agreement/written confirmation from the client.

Then (2) - Point out to the agent that he's entitiled to the commission on two weeks and then tell the agent to take a running jump and you'll see him in court(as he's so young, suggest he brings his mum).

Also, you're going to have to realise that you're most likely not going to get paid for the last week, but as you've moved on to a much better rate/position that's going to be the trade off.

Move on.

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

I was wondering if someone could give me some advice with regards to my husband. As you all know the contract market has been tough recently and after my husband was out of contract for a year, he took a very lowly paid contract with the expectation of leaving as soon as something better came along. Now this contract was shocking... it was £200/day project manager role so it was a significant pay cut If he was earning zero for a year then it was not a significant pay cut. He got this through what I would consider a mickey mouse agency that I have never heard of, <<Name removed by moderator for the time being>>. Just because you haven't heard of an agency doesn't make them "mickey Mouse"

<<Agency>> knew how underpaid this role was so they insisted that he agree to work at least 3 months [I]He didn't have to agree to these terms; if the client was getting that much of a bargain there would have been room for negotiation[/I]... and gave him a 28 day notice period on a contract. Pathetic. Because the rate was so bad it didn't and we knew it was temporary, it didn't make any sense to run under his or mine limited company ,so we went umbrella services If you already have a limited co and presumably are paying an accountant why would you use an umbrella company?.

He of course just got a better job, in line with what he is used to making and put in a 2 week noticeAgain, if the client really wanted him there would probably have been room for negotitation. The client understands. Upon emailing the agent, the agent has refused to accept his notice, and said he must write to the Birmingham office but then would not give the address, as if email was not acceptable. If the agency has received and acknowledged receipt of the notice letter (whether by email or not) it is not reasonable for it to have to be sent by letter to start the notice period although it would not be unreasonable to request written notice

My husband believes the agency <<Agency>> has a contract with the umbrella services company and that he has a contract with the umbrella company. In any case, he never signed a contract with the umbrella company and the agency is threatening to take legal action. Can they even do this without a signed contract? If he did not sign a contract of employment with the umbrella company they should not have added him to their payroll but even so there would be an implied contract as work has been offered, accepted and paid for

Also, if they can, can he not just stay on for another 2 weeks and call in sick every day? This is his last week and they are already threatening legal action yet he hasn't left yet. Help what to do..

[I]Even though your husband did not sign a contract he would still be in breach and the agency would have grounds to take legal action; they offered a position to your husband which he accepted and now he has reneged on the deal; it would be like you hiring a kitchen fitter and him leaving it half finished because a better paying job came along[/I]

[ChristinaO]

Most agencies out there are quite small. More than a few have only one person doing the accounts payable for the firm and if they go sick on a payment day then that means you don't get paid.

If you stick to the likes of Parity and the other big agencies, you'll often get a slightly higher margin taken from your daily rate but you should expect a higher level of staffing. I prefer the smaller, niche consultancies as they're usually far more responsive when finding me a new role but I do have to accept they'll often make mistakes with their payments. Tulip happens.

That said, I had a massive agency (comfortably in the top 5 in the UK) who were so regularly incompetent in dealing with my invoices that it could only have been a deliberate ploy to extend their accounts payable periods beyond the contractually agreed date ranges.

It also depends which sector you work in. With most public sector contracts (excluding local councils) there are frameworks in place for the huge companies that cap the percentage an agent can take. Mine is 11.5 % and that is very low. There are also no secrets about what they are taking. I have found that the smaller companies refuse to disclose and looking what I have paid other contractors, they take between 15-25%. Again, I am only referring to public sector.

[northernladuk]

It wasn't deliberately messing them about. The client was incredibly happy with his work and quite understood the circumstance. It's not for our own gain, you do realise there is a very tough market out there. In any case, with both jobs he was approached by agents and he did say at the beginning of the bad contract that this was more than 100% less that he was used to getting paid and he wouldn't want to stay long. The agency kept pushing and frankly, if you are going to lose your house, I trust you would do the same. He has given 2 weeks notice which is reasonable, please do not forget we are not permenant employees and therefore, a 28 day notice period is ridiculous. If the client is happy to let him go then why can't the agent. It's simply opportunistic.

Oh and the agency is horrific for other reasons, i.e. never paying him, not managing the contract properly. Thinking that this crap contract is a piece of gold... messing them about and frankly, the agent mus be about 19 and is new to the game.

As you all know the contract market has been tough recently and after my husband was out of contract for a year, he took a very lowly paid contract with the expectation of leaving as soon as something better came along

I would say that was deliberately messing them about. Let me see what is worse, bad agency or bad contractor giving us all a bad name?

[NotAllThere]

...PS why can't I name the agency??? I think all contractors should know about this horrific agency?

Laws of libel, mainly. If you could back up everything you've said, and stick to the facts, then there's no problem (from previous experience on these forums) with naming and shaming. However, for first time posters, it's not unknown for them to be deliberate stirrers, or even the agencies competitors. We don't know you, you're not a regular, so we don't immediately trust you.

The following is a good example of what not to say when you've identified your opponent.

Again, horrible for other incompetencies, like not paying him for weeks whilst the director was out in las vegas. I can only presume gambling my husbands pay...

Anyway, he just spoke with the agent who said they are going to sue for the full term of the contract not the notice period, like they refuse to accept his notice.

Sounds to me like a) the agent is trying it on and b) there's been an irretrievable breakdown of the business relationship.

As far as late payment is concerned, The Late Payment of Commercial debts (Interest) Act - Pay on Time has everything you need to know. The law is there. Use it.

[Zippy]

It also depends which sector you work in. With most public sector contracts (excluding local councils) there are frameworks in place for the huge companies that cap the percentage an agent can take. Mine is 11.5 % and that is very low. There are also no secrets about what they are taking. I have found that the smaller companies refuse to disclose and looking what I have paid other contractors, they take between 15-25%. Again, I am only referring to public sector.

The rate/payment schedule is irrelevant Christina. The fact is your hubby agreed to it and so he should have fulfilled his contract.
Now I don't blame him for jumping ship, but you must accept that there is a cost associated with doing so - the argument is really about how much that is. At worst the agent has lost two weeks commission, so ask the agent to come up with a figure of how much they think they have 'lost' and take it from there.
And don't stress about it, as hubby will be earning a load more money soon!

[ChristinaO]

It's actually easy to get the agent to go away without paying but if the poster's husband interacts with the agency like she has with posters here, he will get their back up and they may pursue legal action even if it costs them to prove a point.

Are you joking? my original post explained a situation. The response from some posters was an immediate attack on the moral argument of whether or not he should have left. You guys are being overly critical of me on a personal level. And anyway, you did give some valuable advice and I thank you for that. Shame you had to follow up with a personal attack on me, was it necessary?