Can the company i contract for cut my contract short because i wouldnt go full time?

[flashgg21]

Hey everyone.

I have abit of a problem on my hands. I contract for a large financial company as a web dev. ive only been there 1 month of a 6 month contract and they have offered me a full time position. normally not a bad situation to be in.. but...
they have said while offering me the full time position that if i do not accept the position they will give it to someone else they have lined up and then immediately cut my contract up as they say the contract was only ever to fill the position until someone else permanent came along.
now, ive read over ever single word of my contract that i and them both signed and there is no mention of it ever being a "filler" contract. ive also spoke to the recruitment guy who got me the job and he confirmed that that was never communicated to him and that wasnt part of the agreement. but isnt sure there is alot i or he can do.
So in short they have left me with a choice of take full time and lose out on alot of money or reject the role and lose out on alot of money and scrambling for a new job.

the other strange thing is they just hired another dev doing the exact same as me on a 6 month contract after me and renewed another guys contract for 6 months last week.

Ive no idea why they are doing this and ive honestly no idea what to do.

has anyone got any advise or experienced something similar and how did it play out? surely they are in breach or contract and possibly working place bullying?

thanks in advance

[NotAllThere]

...and they have offered me a full time position. normally not a bad situation to be in.. ...

For most of us, that's a terrible situation to be in.

I think they're behaving perfectly reasonably. They could have just cut you without making the offer.

If you want to take the permie offer, then do so. I you don't, then move on. It's part of what contracting is about. A 6 month contract isn't money in the bank until it's money actually in the bank. You can in most cases be terminated with immediate effect with no come back.

[chineseJohn]

That's exactly what contracting is all about. Better money, higher risk. If you want to start talking about rights etc. then this is leaning towards permie roles and IR35.

You have to ask yourself, why are you a contractor?

I do it for the flexibility and the money.

[malvolio]

Mind you, if they had said at the outset that the contract was only a filler until someone decent came along, how many people would have applied?

Contracting is a hard way to earn money sometimes, you have to either live with that or do something else. Contracts that run to term are a luxury, not a guarantee of income.

[simes]

As many before me have said, a contract is only as good as the notice period. That's the deal.

The company is behaving like a company. You have to decide whether you want to be permanent or a contractor.

For my part, I wouldn't be interested in being offered a perm role other than for the flattering message that they would like to keep me around.

Good luck.

[BlasterBates]

Generally the contract is with the agency not with the client, so the client can do what he wants within the constraints of the agency contract.

There isn't much you can do. It does work both ways in that if a contractor ends the contract early generally nothing much happens.

[BigDataPro]

A contract/contracting is always a filler whether explicitly stated or not, until a company find some one cheaper. This is where I guess we make a difference by being Agile, Flexible, Professional and most importantly being highly skilled at doing what we do and delivering highly quality solutions on time.

Occasionally, companies don't realise the cost of poor, low quality solutions that are delivered late. But eventually they will and do.

[jmo21]

It's poor form, not sure why they think that behaviour would make you WANT to go permie.

That being said there is not really a lot you can do about it.

If they want you out, you're done.

[northernladuk]

Welcome to being an expensive flexible resource.

[password]

Welcome to the perils of contracting as others have said.

When I see a contract term mentioned, I only see that as an indicator as to the estimated amount of work/budget of the client. As others have said, the notice period is the main indicator of security (or lack thereof)

There are so many reasons why a contract can be cut short:

* Politics
* Lack of contractor performance
* Budget constraints
* Perm employee found
* (Some random unexplainable reason)
* The list goes on..