One sided contract, am I being cheated?

[Ashwin2007]

My agency has created an one sided contract which states I do not have the right to terminate the contract, but they can terminate the contract on 24 hours notice. The company provided the contract just one day before the commencement of contract with the condition that I should return the signed contract BEFORE the commencement of the contract, else I will not be allowed to commence work.

Am I being taken for a ride? Or is this normal?

[Cowboy Bob]

Hi Malvolio

[malvolio]

Speaking...

Notice periods are for permies. You don't have one, you aren't a permie. Now, what was that about IR35?

[thunderlizard]

yes that's normal. Usually the party paying the money is allowed to pull out of the deal with very little reason, and the party receiving the money isn't. That's what they're paying money for.
It's not always 100% like that (take a look at any PFI partnership) but it is more often than not.

If you don't like it you can go ahead and ask for a notice period on your side, but your customer might tell you to feck off because they want their project to actually get finished.

And yes there might be incidental IR35 implications.

[tim123]

yes that's normal. Usually the party paying the money is allowed to pull out of the deal with very little reason, and the party receiving the money isn't. That's what they're paying money for.
It's not always 100% like that (take a look at any PFI partnership) but it is more often than not.

If you don't like it you can go ahead and ask for a notice period on your side, but your customer might tell you to feck off because they want their project to actually get finished.

And yes there might be incidental IR35 implications.

Having been caught out (more than once) before, I always say that I require the option to give notice, in case the job I am asked to do when I arrive isn't the one that was presented to me at the interview (um, project tender meeting). (And how many times has that happened to you?)

I tell them that I am quite prepared to meet my contractual obligation of finishing the work that I agreed to at the project tender meeting, provided that the client does not use this contract as an opportunity to deploy me on some other work that I hadn't agreed to (and wouldn't have if asked). So, if the client wants me to sign up to a fixed term, I need the contract to include an exact description of the work so that I can legal option of refusing to do anything that isn't part of this contract.

Oddly, when presented with the choice, a notice period has always been forthcoming by return.

tim