Contracted hours vs being sent home early

[Murder1]

I've hit upon an interesting scenario that I think presents an issue.

Client has 40 hour week stipulated in all contracts, however all being well at the end of the week (which is most cases) they allow people to leave 2.5 hours earlier than normal thus contractors are leaving having only done 37.5 hours but invoicing for 5 full days.

Is this acceptable as it's the client who's instructed them to finish early? Or should the contractor work the remaining 2.5 hours to fulfil the contract and differentiate themselves from the employees?

[SlipTheJab]

I've hit upon an interesting scenario that I think presents an issue.

Client has 40 hour week stipulated in all contracts, however all being well at the end of the week (which is most cases) they allow people to leave 2.5 hours earlier than normal thus contractors are leaving having only done 37.5 hours but invoicing for 5 full days.

Is this acceptable as it's the client who's instructed them to finish early? Or should the contractor work the remaining 2.5 hours to fulfil the contract and differentiate themselves from the employees?

Surely a day rate makes this a moot point, are you on an hourly rate?

[LondonManc]

What does your contract say?

Are you direct or through an agent?

[kaiser78]

Do you have to fill in any timesheets which state how many hours you work each day ? If not, it is not a problem.

[LondonManc]

More to the point, are you behaving like/being treated like a permie?

[Murder1]

Contract states 40 week (nothing about hours or finish times)
Agency timesheet and internal timesheet stipulate hours per day (so I've asked and people just put 8 hours for the Friday)
I'm trying to ensure I operate differently to a permanent employee but the client is keen to treat everyone the same

[LondonManc]

Contract states 40 week (nothing about hours or finish times)
Agency timesheet and internal timesheet stipulate hours per day (so I've asked and people just put 8 hours for the Friday)
I'm trying to ensure I operate differently to a permanent employee but the client is keen to treat everyone the same

Sounds like working practices will trump contract.

[Murder1]

Sounds like working practices will trump contract.

Hence my eagerness to differentiate myself around this topic by offering to either work the additional hours regardless or work them across the week so I'm being treated differently.

[NotAllThere]

I've hit upon an interesting scenario that I think presents an issue.

Client has 40 hour week stipulated in all contracts, however all being well at the end of the week (which is most cases) they allow people to leave 2.5 hours earlier than normal thus contractors are leaving having only done 37.5 hours but invoicing for 5 full days.

Where's the issue? Is the client unhappy?

Is this acceptable as it's the client who's instructed them to finish early? Or should the contractor work the remaining 2.5 hours to fulfil the contract and differentiate themselves from the employees?

Acceptable to whom?

[Murder1]

Where's the issue? Is the client unhappy?

Acceptable to whom?

The client is fine, my concern was really two fold:

1. Is it acceptable as a contractor to invoice for hours not worked because the client told you to finish early - does this become less acceptable if it's done on a regular basis rather than as a one-off?

2. If the contract states 40 hours and the client is regularly telling permies AND contractors to leave early thus making it a 37.5 hours week, are working practices not trumping the contract and thus making it an IR35 issue?