Gig Cancelled Immediately After Signing Contract

[SussexSeagull]

They wasted his time, lied about the rate and he could have being earning elsewhere. I would go for 1 month worth of Daily Rate plus 50% of the full contract value. Start high and let them negotiate down. Hardball

Absolutely no legal basis whatsoever for getting anything beyond the notice period (and as previously suggested here that would require some effort).

[LondonManc]

If I remember correctly, there was zero notice period during the first month or something. I never really expected anyone to pay me for not working. An apology would have been nice as someone else mentioned.

Reality is that contractors are always at risk of zero notice period - "project has been canned, you're no longer needed, no work for you, sorry."

[b0redom]

They wasted his time, lied about the rate and he could have being earning elsewhere. I would go for 1 month worth of Daily Rate plus 50% of the full contract value. Start high and let them negotiate down. Hardball

Are all your contracts inside IR35 then? Apart from the fact the OP hasn’t stepped foot on the client site, MOO ensures that they’re not obliged to give OP any work regardless of the notice period.

OP definitely connect on LinkedIn. Something along the lines of “I understand the contract has been pulled, let’s connect in case I can be of help in the future.”

Nothing ventured...

[hairymouse]

I did connect on Linked in and sent a note like the earlier poster suggested that references the lowering of the budget. ClientCo accepted my connection but didn't write anything back.

Hey Ho, I'm back on jobserve this morning.

[hairymouse]

Update

Further developments:
After getting in touch with ClientCo via LinkedIn, he said that they really wanted me to work with them and he couldn't understand what happened. Then he asked me my daily rate, which I provided. The he said he was goingto do what he could to get me on site.

Now it seems that there is a bunch of back and forth between Clientco, the agency who signed me up and the middleman consultancy. Middleman consultancy is apparently angry that I told Clientco my daily rate.

Would anyone else feel that they have to keep their daily rate a secret from the end client? It's obviously less than the total amount payable to middleman consultancy so it can't be a big surprise. Obviously the problem is the cut that the two middleman are trying to take and I don't see that as my issue. Hence, no reason to keep my part a secret.

Thoughts?

[vwdan]

Further developments:
After getting in touch with ClientCo via LinkedIn, he said that they really wanted me to work with them and he couldn't understand what happened. Then he asked me my daily rate, which I provided. The he said he was goingto do what he could to get me on site.

Now it seems that there is a bunch of back and forth between Clientco, the agency who signed me up and the middleman consultancy. Middleman consultancy is apparently angry that I told Clientco my daily rate.

Would anyone else feel that they have to keep their daily rate a secret from the end client? It's obviously less than the total amount payable to middleman consultancy so it can't be a big surprise. Obviously the problem is the cut that the two middleman are trying to take and I don't see that as my issue. Hence, no reason to keep my part a secret.

Thoughts?

Would anyone else feel that they have to keep their daily rate a secret from the end client?

Generally, yes. In this case, no, balls to them. As you say, this is a "them" problem, and not a "you" problem and they've almost certainly been caught in a lie. Anyway, unfortunately your previous contract fell through and so you were quoting for new work

Honestly, every thing aside, my take is agents are on par with 1980's window salesmen. The vast majority are sales people and absolutely nothing more* and most would see their granny to meet a target. I don't feel I have any moral obligation whatsoever to help them with their bulltulip.

*And before someone comes in bleating, this is from a position of having recruited and also worked directly with recruitment agents in business. As in, doing work for recruitment agencies.

[WTFH]

Would anyone else feel that they have to keep their daily rate a secret from the end client? It's obviously less than the total amount payable to middleman consultancy so it can't be a big surprise. Obviously the problem is the cut that the two middleman are trying to take and I don't see that as my issue. Hence, no reason to keep my part a secret.

You might want to read your contract. It probably has a clause in it about not discussing your contract with the client.

Since you have discussed it and the client has now discussed it with the consultancy, you might be in a bit of trouble.

[vwdan]

You might want to read your contract. It probably has a clause in it about not discussing your contract with the client.

Since you have discussed it and the client has now discussed it with the consultancy, you might be in a bit of trouble.

And what trouble would that be? "Breach of contract" isn't some automatic offence - they'd need to demonstrate a loss etc. OP isn't working and his contract is essentially over anyway - I don't think they'd stand a cat in hells chance of getting anywhere with that. Although doing it in writing probably wasn't ideal.

[northernladuk]

Now it seems that there is a bunch of back and forth between Clientco, the agency who signed me up and the middleman consultancy. Middleman consultancy is apparently angry that I told Clientco my daily rate. ?

You don't say LOL. It's a commercial agreement between you and your agency and is non of the clients business. It's likely it's exposed the agency's rip of margin and the client isn't overly pleased with them either and some kind of tulip storm is going on. More often than not nothing good comes from passing commercially/contractually sensitive information on the client. Be careful about doing it in future.

That said in this particular case, where the rate appears to be the problem here, you have nothing really to lose and might actually get something out of it.

I take it you didn't start an IPSE claim in the meantime?

[hairymouse]

You might want to read your contract. It probably has a clause in it about not discussing your contract with the client.

Since you have discussed it and the client has now discussed it with the consultancy, you might be in a bit of trouble.

That could be an issue. I wonder if it matters that the contract was never really implemented since I was told immediately after signing it that there was no work. The agent told me that the gig was off. Funnily enough, they still onboarded me and still send me automated emails asking me to fill in a timesheet.