Client enforcing time away without notice period

[Wanderer]

My contract ends on the 02 December however I was informed by the client yesterday (14/11) that they are enforcing a Mandatory Time Away period for the project from the 25th November. I have a 30-day notice period on my contract. Therefore, if I am expected to end the assignment on the 25th of November instead of the 02 December, surely they would have needed to tell me on the 25th October? As they haven’t, am I within my rights to invoice to the 02 December?

1. It depends on the wording in your contract, painful as it is, you need to read it very carefully indeed. Are you contracted to work 5 days a week for the contract period and most importantly, are they obliged to offer you work for the full duration of the contract and are you obliged to do the work? ("mutuality of obligation") Can they have a clause saying they can terminate the contract with immediate effect for any reason?

2. Are you through an agency or direct? If it's an agency, what is your opt out status?

3. Is there any possibility of an extension or future work for the client? Have you been at the client for a long or a short time? Do you care about leaving on good terms? How much goodwill have you built up at the client? How much money has the company taken from the client in fees over the duration of the contract? Do you consider yourself inside or outside IR35?


If you are working through an agency and NOT opted out then the nuclear option is to invoice them for the last week (no timesheet required) and take legal action against them in small claims court when they refuse to pay (as they will). If it gets to court then a judge will consider your contract in detail and decide if you should be paid. They may settle out of court if you refuse to back down or they may bring in some big gun lawyers who baffle you with legalese and cost you a bunch in legal fees. Be aware that winning the case may tip you into being IR35 caught (with serious tax implications if you consider yourself outside IR35) and will certainly destroy any goodwill between you, the agency and the client (and rest assured, the client WILL get dragged into this).

Conversely, if you don't take action, it's probably a good IR35 defence that you made a business "loss" when your contract was terminated unexpectedly.


The overwhelming consensus from this forum is going to be that as long as you are paid for the work you have done, you should take it like a man. Smile sweetly, thank everyone you've worked with, buy a round of beers in the pub, leave on good terms and focus your energy on finding the next contract.

[Wanderer]

The other important point here is that it's the client saying that they are terminating early, NOT the agency. In this case it's fairly clear that the client doesn't intend to pay for the "Mandatory Time Away" so there is no suspicion that the client is paying the agency for the notice period and the agency is withholding the money.....

I was informed by the client yesterday (14/11) that they are enforcing a Mandatory Time Away period for the project from the 25th November.

[northernladuk]

The overwhelming consensus from this forum is going to be that as long as you are paid for the work you have done, you should take it like a man. Smile sweetly, thank everyone you've worked with, buy a round of beers in the pub, leave on good terms and focus your energy on finding the next contract.

<cough>or woman!!

The other important point here is that it's the client saying that they are terminating early, NOT the agency.

No one is terminating early. It is just unfortuanate this contract ends during the enforced time off. This != termination in the true sense.

[Sockpuppet]

Let them know you are claiming notice period. Probably won't work but depends how keen the OP is to maintain a relationship with them.

Getting paid for no work....hmm the most blatant IR35 pointer out there.

SO you invoice for an extra week. So around a 2% increase in revenue (assume 1 year contract) and expose yourself to taking a 40% hit as it'll be easily proved the whole contract was one of service not for service .... i.e. Hector will treat you as an employee.

Smart business move that.

[TestMangler]

Getting paid for no work....hmm the most blatant IR35 pointer out there.

SO you invoice for an extra week. So around a 2% increase in revenue (assume 1 year contract) and expose yourself to taking a 40% hit as it'll be easily proved the whole contract was one of service not for service .... i.e. Hector will treat you as an employee.

Smart business move that.

How many tiimes are we going to go through this with the same people spouting the same rubbish over and over again ?

Your statement, above, is CRAP.

Please try to understand !!

[TheFaQQer]

No one is terminating early. It is just unfortuanate this contract ends during the enforced time off. This != termination in the true sense.

WHS - since it's not termination, the only issue is whether Belle is entitled to get paid for work that (s)he does not do.

[TestMangler]

WHS - since it's not termination, the only issue is whether Belle is entitled to get paid for work that (s)he does not do.

Correct. It's a different question entirely !

[TheFaQQer]

How many tiimes are we going to go through this with the same people spouting the same rubbish over and over again ?

Your statement, above, is CRAP.

Please try to understand !!

Now, I know you have a contract review expert, because you told us about him / her / it in another thread (and they give great service since you can ask a question outside normal working hours, and they respond in five minutes).

However, since I use Qdos to do my contract checks, I'm going to take their expert, paid-for advice over the advice of some anonymous person on the internet:

If a contract terminates early and the contractor still gets paid then this will reaffirm the existence of MOO for the duration of the contract. It is a question often asked by HMRC during an IR35 enquiry.

If you have any different expert advice, which is publicly available, then I invite you to share with the CUK collective.

[TestMangler]

Now, I know you have a contract review expert, because you told us about him / her / it in another thread (and they give great service since you can ask a question outside normal working hours, and they respond in five minutes).

However, since I use Qdos to do my contract checks, I'm going to take their expert, paid-for advice over the advice of some anonymous person on the internet:



If you have any different expert advice, which is publicly available, then I invite you to share with the CUK collective.

I'm speaking from experience here mate. From an IR35 investigation which was defended by one of the specialists that are used by the very people you quote !!

Long story short, agency and client had a discussion about early termination due to project completing early and communicated this to me incorrectly. Agency thought I was being moved to another project for notice period, client thought they were terminating immediately despite 30 day notice in contract. I demanded payment of notice period from agency and didn't get it. Took agency to court. Agency admitted error and paid. I have no idea what was arranged between agency/client. have been back to client since though.

In a subsequent IR35 enquiry, this was presented as evidence of risk due to being in business on own account by the very people who would defend YOU should you find yourself in that position.

So, anyone who says 'getting paid for work you haven't done puts you inside IR35' is talking crap. It may under certain circumstances, in others it may not.

QED.

I probably have my contracts reviewed by the same people you do and am insured under the same policy you are.

[psychocandy]

This MOO thing is all fair enough and something I guess does happen.

However, from reading a few posts on here it does seem to happen near the end of the contract when the client wants rid of early. With MOO obviously, they can give you your notice but then tell you not to come in anyway so notice period seems to be a bit academic? Am I right here?

Cant see too many clients telling you mid-contract, take a month off then come back for next project. Surely this would be a sure fire way to piss your contractors off and risk them telling you to stuff it and go off and do something else. After all, it works both ways.

Then again, I used to work as permie in a place that made the contractors all take 3-4 weeks off for Xmas every year. Some reason about cost cutting and less work gets done in decemember etc. Personally, I though it was all a bit silly and just managed to piss them off to save a few quid. There were times when something important had to be done by one of the contractors in december but company policy dictated they couldnt work.