Fired and escorted out because I did not accept to be paid less than hours worked

[Homhom]

Hi, I am new here and also new in contracting.
Today, I had an experience from hell.
I was terminated, because I have worked 8.8 days and close to pay day the agency came up with the rule to only pay 0.5 or 1.0 days. The time sheet asks for decimals of 1.0!
They first asked client if they upgrade to 9.0. Client refused and expected of me to round down to 8.5 days. Which I did not accept. Would anyone?
In my reply by email I pointed out to both that this is now beyond acceptable, after having been told at interview with client that contract is for 6 months and 60%, when then the contract was already downsized to 3 months and at start at site, client also told me is only 50%.
Today, client was pissed off that I showed my upset and also that i wrote that email, and within the breath of a minute from considering me for permanent post terminated my contract, with the argument that I clearly showed anger towards them and that this is not what they want, as they are looking at behaviour.
This person who told me that, I have to say though, is very odd, never properly gave me intro, confuses and delays many things, didnt know anything about study she is managing that i needed to do my task for, but people on the surface seem to like her. Within a split second she first decided to terminate the agency, because they made this problem with the 0.5 days rule, and then 5 sec later she terminated me, because basically I was upset and refusing to be paid 0.3 days less.
I had to go same day.
Can they just do that on such non-material grounds? I was not shouting at her at all, I just refused to accept it and was (non-aggressively) upset.

My contract says that client has to give one month notice but I had to go.

Thank you for your insights.

[MrMarkyMark]

Sounds like you have well and truly shot yourself in the foot.

What does the contract say with regards to partial days work? Are you paid daily or hourly? I suspect you can only get paid half days, as per the time sheet.

That having all being said, you messed up and should just move on.

[BrilloPad]

A day rate is generally a day rate.

Was it worth all that aggro over such a small point? Why not just accept 8.5 days?

It does not matter what was said at interview. What counts is what was in your contract.

Get what you can from the agency and move on.

I had a gig with day rate once. I took a half day and charged 0.5 days. I was paid a full day. I then did that a few more times.

[MrMarkyMark]

A day rate is generally a day rate.

Was it worth all that aggro over such a small point? Why not just accept 8.5 days?

It does not matter what was said at interview. What counts is what was in your contract.

Get what you can from the agency and move on.

I had a gig with day rate once. I took a half day and charged 0.5 days. I was paid a full day. I then did that a few more times.

That is written into some contracts, anything over 5 hours is a full day. However it can also say 4 hours pays less than a half day.
Important bit, always, is to read what you are signing

[mudskipper]

Unfortunately the only advice can be "move on". Good luck.

[northernladuk]

So you are new to contracting but you are throwing your weight around and expecting to come out of it on top. Your first big mistake.

Yes they can terminate you on the spot using two difference clauses in your contract. Read it and see if you can find them.

Reading all that there aren't cultural issues in play here?

Anyway, what's done is done. I've in and hope this hasn't been too damaging to your career as a contractor. Its hardly a dream start.

[northernladuk]

What does 6 months and 60% mean?

[Abraham]

I was with a client once. Due to project urgency, the client manager asked me - along with the entire team - to work up to 10:00 PM, almost 13 to 14 hours, each day. Except me, all were permies., and permies got OT. When I filled in the timesheet at the end of the month, the client manager refused to pay anything extra, saying that "You are on a day rate, so we cannot pay more. Even if you have worked for 13 hours, they will be counted as a single day only".

[Homhom]

Bummer, how i not knew that! It just came out of nowherre at days end with next day resubmission deadline (with 1.5 month wait for first pay). If I had known this is the reason of course I would have rounded down... They should at least have sent me that email separately from client and explain it.

I just followed the time sheet instructions, having to put in decimals... I was surprised and that's why these strange calculations came up.

My contract says full days - but the thing is that client person at site kept saying 50%, 2.5 days or 18.75h! That's why I ended up submitting some 0.6 in first 2 weeks, when I had not seen the time sheet yet with the decimals.

May be there is an angle that the client insisted on 50% contrary to contract and interview?

The agency gets more than 50% of my day rate as well....., I contacted them many times tp ask about the difference between my contract and client saying 50%, they only refered to someone else speaking with them and never did sort it.

Thanks for your comments!!

[BrilloPad]

I was with a client once, due to project urgency, asked me - along with the entire team - to work up to 10:00 PM, almost 13 to 14 hours, each day. Except me, all were permies., and permies got OT. When I filled in the timesheet at the end of the month, the client manager refused to pay anything extra, saying that "You are on a day rate, so we cannot pay more. Even if you have worked for 13 hours, they will be counted as a single day only".

Interesting post.

Reminds me of when I did a 24 hour stint. I asked for, and got, 3 days pay.

I also remember working at UBS in 1991. Hourly rate. I was getting loads of overtime. Permies none. The managers promised to sort them out. The nine of them got a bottle of spirits each! I had got a few bags of sand!