Contract at Barclays

[drawson]

I have just started(In Dec 2010) a 6 month contract job at Barclays. Notice period from the employer is immediate and from my side is none i.e., I am obliged to work for the full duration of contract.

Now, I have received an offer for a permie job (of course with much salary that the current contract) from one of the dream companies I always wanted to work with. My new employer can wait at the most for another 2 months....There is no financial obligation on my part if I breach the contract..also I have an umbrella company to do my invoices etc.
I want to speak to my current manager and switch to the permie job. What would be my liabilities if I do that? Is there anyone who worked for Barclays before and had the same situation?

[malvolio]

I have just started(In Dec 2010) a 6 month contract job at Barclays. Notice period from the employer is immediate and from my side is none i.e., I am obliged to work for the full duration of contract.

Now, I have received an offer for a permie job (of course with much salary that the current contract) from one of the dream companies I always wanted to work with. My new employer can wait at the most for another 2 months....There is no financial obligation on my part if I breach the contract..also I have an umbrella company to do my invoices etc.
I want to speak to my current manager and switch to the permie job. What would be my liabilities if I do that? Is there anyone who worked for Barclays before and had the same situation?

Oh good. Someone else who doesn't believe in contracts. Did you have your fingers crossed when you signed it?

Speak to your client and explain. You may be lucky, but be prepared to leave the building very quickly and with rather less money than you expected to.

HTH

[Wanderer]

Notice period from the employer is immediate and from my side is none i.e., I am obliged to work for the full duration of contract.

Negotiate a handover and fair notice period with the client. If at all possible, ask that the client terminates the contract for you that way the agency won't try any stupid tricks. If the client won't terminate the contract then serve 1 month's notice on the agency in writing. As malvolio says, you may be escorted from the building so make sure you have your latest time sheet signed before you give them the good news.

Personally I would invoice and expect to be paid for all work done for the client where I had authorised timesheets (although if you didn't opt-out then you don't even need timesheets though it's harder to fight). Also, I don't accept this agency bulltulip about not paying you because you left a contract early. They can't unilaterally apply penalties to a civil contract in this way, the law just doesn't work like that and these contract terms are unenforceable.

Quite apart from that, imagine the scenario where the client has agreed to let you do a handover, authorised your timesheets and paid the agency for work done presuming that they will pay you. Does the agency get to just pocket this money? Not on my contracts they bloody well wouldn't! I'd be straight back to the client in the first instance to tell then what the agency has done and then go after the agency for the money they owe (plus interest and late payment penalties).

It doesn't stop them trying to shaft contractors, and from what I read on this forum, some of them bend over and take it too.

[northernladuk]

Barclays went through a stage where they binned all contractors and then opened the roles back up a few months later for ridiculous rates. £200 for Service Delivery related roles so many people were just using it as stop gap and then binning them off when the proper money came up hence them removing the notice period to try and curtail this. Rates seemed to be approaching normal again though. Being burnt by so many contractors I shouldn't think they will be particularly happy you need to leave as well I am afraid.

[Old Greg]

If you want to renege, then...

Do you have Right of Substitution?
What happens if you are 'sick' for a month (or on alternate days)?
What happens if you're work is not up to scratch, or you stop flushing the toilet?

At the end of the day, these are all different ways of saying that it's in no-one's interests to have someone who doesn't want to be there, but as others have said it might get unpleasant.

[MarillionFan]

Sometimes it's like dumping a clingy girlfriend.

If you can't do it, you make her do it by becoming unbearable.

[ChrisPackit]

When I worked at Barclays, they got rid of 31 out of 32 contractors in one foul swoop. I wasn't the one who was lucky either.

On that basis, I would do what you need to do to get the job you're after....in other words, **** 'em !!

It was still the best contract I ever did though, but it's meant to be crap these days. That's in terms of the women though, not the work...

[nomadd]

When I worked at Barclays, they got rid of 31 out of 32 contractors in one foul swoop. I wasn't the one who was lucky either.

On that basis, I would do what you need to do to get the job you're after....in other words, **** 'em !!

It was still the best contract I ever did though, but it's meant to be crap these days. That's in terms of the women though, not the work...

This^ (Although I decided to leave Barclays before the axe fell...)

To the OP: Just go for your dream permie job. Everything else is secondary; there is very little the agency or Barclays can do, except maybe a small financial penalty (and I'm sure the threat of legal action from you would even minimise that risk if they tried it on...) Try to finish on the best terms you can with the client; explain the position to them and state that you will give a decent notice period plus help in anyway you can to find a replacement. Don't blow the rest of your carreer sweating over one short contract with Barclays. As other's have said, they'd have no problem showing you the door.

Ps. This is why I never accept contracts with one-sided/no-notice notice clauses. (But let's not open that can of worms again; it's been debated to death around here so many times, and it'll only bring out the usual nutters with their trolling/ranting... )

[MarillionFan]

This^ (Although I decided to leave Barclays before the axe fell...)

To the OP: Just go for your dream permie job. Everything else is secondary; there is very little the agency or Barclays can do, except maybe a small financial penalty (and I'm sure the threat of legal action from you would even minimise that risk if they tried it on...) Try to finish on the best terms you can with the client; explain the position to them and state that you will give a decent notice period plus help in anyway you can to find a replacement. Don't blow the rest of your carreer sweating over one short contract with Barclays. As other's have said, they'd have no problem showing you the door.

Ps. This is why I never accept contracts with one-sided/no-notice notice clauses. (But let's not open that can of worms again; it's been debated to death around here so many times, and it'll only bring out the usual nutters with their trolling/ranting... )

Probably better to troll a thread than spam an entire board using Xrumer hey Nomadd!

[badger7579]

I have just started(In Dec 2010) a 6 month contract job at Barclays. Notice period from the employer is immediate and from my side is none i.e., I am obliged to work for the full duration of contract.

Now, I have received an offer for a permie job (of course with much salary that the current contract) from one of the dream companies I always wanted to work with. My new employer can wait at the most for another 2 months....There is no financial obligation on my part if I breach the contract..also I have an umbrella company to do my invoices etc.
I want to speak to my current manager and switch to the permie job. What would be my liabilities if I do that? Is there anyone who worked for Barclays before and had the same situation?

Whats the agency? contact please