T&M Contract - Issue

[chirag2205]

Hi All,

In June I signed up a T&M Contract with an IT Company. It was initially 10 man-days per month, starting from 01/06/2021 to 31/07/2021.

That means basically 10 days for June and 10 days for July.

We both signed the contract, I started working and very quickly 10 days of June were utilised but work was not finished due to delay caused by the Client. The environments were not ready for me to work for the initial 3 days. So they send me a supplementary contract which replaced the original one. In this, it was 20 man-days per month instead of 10 days. They asked me to continue work and did as they provided me with the supplementary contract. Now when I send them the invoice for 20 man-days for June, they came back saying how can I charge for the days when there was a delay. They admit the delay was caused by them but they don't want to pay for that.

Also, the work for which they hired will finish today. That is 7 man-days in July. They are asking me to just stop the work from Monday and not to invoice them. But the original contract was 10 man days per month and then they increased to 20 man-days. Notice period from both sides is 2 weeks to terminate the contract.


I told them but I logged into your environment and was available 9-5 on those days, hence I am charging for those 3 days.

And for the other issue, I told them they signed the contract for 20 man-days per month for June and July so they have to find work for me. As I will be invoicing them.

Am I right in my statement?

Any thoughts are welcomed.

[Lance]

did you work during the delay?
Or did you just burn their time doing nothing?

[malvolio]

You're being paid to deliver stuff, not to sit in a chair in case you're needed for 20 days.

Yes it's their fault you didn't do any work, but the fact remains you didn't do any. If you want to be paid for doing nothing, then go permie.

Yes, it's unfair, but that's the nature of being an independent. Welcome to reality.

[northernladuk]

Isn't the clue here in the fact it's a T&M contract? You know, Time and Materials. That's kinda the whole point of a T&M that you get paid for the time you work. If you didn't you aren't owed a jot. It wouldn't be T&M if you contracted for 10 days and expected 10 days pay for nothing. Pretty fundamental stuff this really.

If you read your contract there should be a clause saying something around you getting paid upon receipt of a signed timesheet. You don't work, no signed timesheet, no pay. It's how we've always worked.

If you don't like not getting paid for work you didn't do don't take Time and Material contracts.

Yes, it's unfair, but that's the nature of being an independent. Welcome to reality.

You could say it's nothing to do with 'unfair'. Unfortunate maybe but it's the whole point of T&M and these things happen. You can't complain something is unfair when it's all laid out in the contract in black and white that the OP signed. To be fair to the OP they didn't claim it was a scam or illegal

[eek]

I have in the past billed for days when no work has been done because of their mistakes and at other times not billed for the exact same reason. For me it boils down to when I was told - turn up and discover you can't do anything - I'm billing, tell me in advance I'm not needed I won't bill.

So personally I would be billing for that first day (as you logged in discovered and issue and then had to spend time reporting it) but I wouldn't be billing for days 2 and 3 as there was no work to be done. If however, you logged in on day 2 because someone told you it was fixed I might bill for those as well it depends on whether I wanted to ever work with the client again.

Beyond that I would then bill for the days you've worked. If it adds up to 20 days in total all well and good, if it's more than that well it was a T&C contract and there were issues outside my control.

What I wouldn't be doing is billing for days beyond today when the project is finished.

[Lance]

I have in the past billed for days when no work has been done because of their mistakes and at other times not billed for the exact same reason. For me it boils down to when I was told - turn up and discover you can't do anything - I'm billing, tell me in advance I'm not needed I won't bill.

So personally I would be billing for that first day (as you logged in discovered and issue and then had to spend time reporting it) but I wouldn't be billing for days 2 and 3 as there was no work to be done. If however, you logged in on day 2 because someone told you it was fixed I might bill for those as well it depends on whether I wanted to ever work with the client again.

Beyond that I would then bill for the days you've worked. If it adds up to 20 days in total all well and good, if it's more than that well it was a T&C contract and there were issues outside my control.

What I wouldn't be doing is billing for days beyond today when the project is finished.

that's the key phrase.
When you're on a customer site waiting then billing for it is fine. But one of the reasons I like the T&M contracts is I can do several in parallel whilst working from home. The client gets the benefit of the additional flexibility, and I get the other benefits.

Sounds like the OPs real problem is not having another one or two of these.

[cannon999]

I disagree with all the comments, this depends on the specifics of the contract. If you have reserved my time for 10 days and I have potentially turned down other jobs - you are paying for it regardless of whether you have wasted it or not.

[eek]

that's the key phrase.
When you're on a customer site waiting then billing for it is fine. But one of the reasons I like the T&M contracts is I can do several in parallel whilst working from home. The client gets the benefit of the additional flexibility, and I get the other benefits.

Sounds like the OPs real problem is not having another one or two of these.

Even in a WFH situation I would be billing for the day - if I've blocked a day out kick off a project it's not possible at zero notice to repurpose it...

I can repurpose the rest of the week but the initial day - it's probably too late.

[chirag2205]

did you work during the delay?
Or did you just burn their time doing nothing?

Yes I did work, they ask me to attend the meetings and go through the documentation. So I had gone through the documentation which they asked me to.

[chirag2205]

You're being paid to deliver stuff, not to sit in a chair in case you're needed for 20 days.

Yes it's their fault you didn't do any work, but the fact remains you didn't do any. If you want to be paid for doing nothing, then go permie.

Yes, it's unfair, but that's the nature of being an independent. Welcome to reality.

During those 3 days I was asked to go through the documentation which I did, and was chasing their Service Desk to sort out my access to their environments.