40 hrs minimum or 1/2 day rate penalty - never seen before

[northernladuk]

Autocorrect is going to be the death of me but thank you. That was nice of you

[SpontaneousOrder]

Mandatory minimum hours is bad for IR35.

I would have thought that it's not good, rather than bad. If you get my meaning.

[TheLordDave]

As always I would say it depends on what the guy who signs your time sheets is like. If they query 10 mins here and there you end up out if pocket, if they are cool and realise that it all balances out then your ok. Working practises don't always match the contract I find.

[BrilloPad]

Remember the reality doesn't match the paperwork.

This was exactly what I was thinking.

[meridian]

Most gigs I've been on have had a "put 4 or 8 hours in the time sheet regardless of your actual hours" policy, and then invoice for half or full day rate. As others have said, it balances out in the end anyway, especially on those contracts where you do shorter hours in the beginning and long slogs just before go live.

Had one gig where it was daily rate and I started off time sheeting actual hours, the agency's self billing couldn't handle it and was pro-rata-ing the daily rate. Stuck to 8 hours after that, regardless of actual hours.

[SussexSeagull]

WHS

The other point is that be prepared to be held to it. If they do start pointing to the contract, just work to rule. Believe me when you walk off site at 17:00 on the dot every day they will soon get the message. I've had this happen, when they complain just state the obvious, I don't do unpaid work.

This.

40 hour contract's seem to be coming more and more the norm now and are something of a pain if you have to do any travelling to get on site. If they aren't going to be flexible for you, don't be flexible for them.

Having said that, most of these so called 8 hour days tend to fairly flexible once you are established.

[Stan.goodvibes]

Autocorrect is going to be the death of me but thank you. That was nice of you

Ducking autocorrect!

[Stan.goodvibes]

unless we are talking about IR35 considerations I'm not sure I understand what the problem is. Here in Oz if you are getting a considerable daily rate the typical mandated hours of work are 8 per day. half days are 4 hours, and days off are 0 hours.

I typically do 8-10 hours anyway (it helps that I can walk to work in anywhere from 2 - 15 minutes depending on client location) especially if a few of those hours are learning a new skill or doing something that is helping me personally to become a better (read: better paid) contractor.

The clients never expect me to do more. p.s. it's almost impossible to get hourly rates here any more, day rates are the norm, required hours/day is always stipulated. In my new contract the billing process is always a multiple of 4 hours (8 for full, 4 for half), no matter how many 'real' hours I work.

[psychocandy]

Ta all. We'll see.

Appreciate that the reality might not match the contract. i.e. it might all be friendly and flexible,

[Zero Liability]

You're best off asking a reviewer tbh, as it may not even be an issue at the contract level. There's a Qdos rep on here as you probably know.