Urgent: Can I Sue?

[Gonzo]

I am really sorry to sound so harsh, but we justify the premium that we charge based on the flexibility that we provide our clients.

They needed you for ten days, you've done the work, charge them and move on.

If you can't live with that then maybe you should consider going back to permiedom.


It was mentioned ealier on, but despite the start and end dates in the contract, there is almost certainly a clause stating that they are not obliged to provide you with work, and you are not obliged to take it. On that basis you would have no grounds to sue anyone. But that clause is a good thing by the way.

[Jsecure]

From the look of a lot of the posts, people are misreading what I typed and thinking I was contracting through an agent, for company A.

Actually, I was contracting through an agent, to company A, who said, we want someone for three months, and they were then supplying me to company B.

Problem was a rogue salesguy at company A assumed a ten day bit of work would take three months (???) - I'm going to assume it was his first day, as how you can overestimate a project by that much is beyond me.

In speaking with my recruiters, they say there was a week's notice period in the contract, so they're going to extract that from company A for me. Despite company A saying they needed a guy for three months of work, company A's contract to supply to company B, was a day by day contract, so they had no idea three months of work would be required. Company B are pretty blameless. They just hired their guy from company A on a one day contract, each day, till the job was done.

Ultimately I don't think I'll ever work for company A again, as they seem pretty dodgy and they can be said to massively overinflate the length of contracts, and pull out of contracts less than half way through - all stuff which as a contractor I don't need.

In the meantime I've hit the ground running and lined up a couple of interviews elsewhere. There just isn't any time as a contractor for dusting yourself off sadly

I don't think I'll sue as it'd probably be very technical and complex (read: expensive) and in a brilliant perfect outcome I'd probably only get the rest of my contract, if that.

It's a problem at the moment. We have to be flexible, we're contractors. But as a LAMP developer I'm finding the rates very depressed at the moment, which means I'm really running close to the edge taking the rates I take (between 200, 250 a day) and trying to have a huge nest egg for downtime.

Oh well. Thanks for your advice guys. The general message, dust off, move on, I think was right

[Jsecure]

Oh and whoever said make friends, you were spot on I made friends with the guys at company B, who were a bit miffed when the sales guy at company A called them to harass them into finding something for me to do for another two months two weeks... They have said if they need more work done, they may just email me...

[NickFitz]

In the meantime I've hit the ground running and lined up a couple of interviews elsewhere. There just isn't any time as a contractor for dusting yourself off sadly

That's the spirit! To hell with the timewasters

Oh and whoever said make friends, you were spot on I made friends with the guys at company B, who were a bit miffed when the sales guy at company A called them to harass them into finding something for me to do for another two months two weeks... They have said if they need more work done, they may just email me...

Even better!

Good luck with the interviews

[thunderlizard]

I made friends with the guys at company B

Including the boogie-woogie bugle boy?

(sorry...but when will I ever get the chance to make that one again?)

As you have discovered, it's all down to the contract terms.
I do mainly agree that contractors charge a premium for flexibility, and if the work evaporates for whatever reason you shouldn't be shocked, subject to contract of course. But another bit of me keeps seeing more successful companies (ok, mainly Accenture) making their millions by estimating [x days * rate y], finishing the work in [x/3 days], and charging [£x*y], and I do get a tad jealous!