Maternity Cover Contract & AWR

[cjm10979]

Hi,

I know most of you guys are 'proper contractors' conducting your own business in your own right. But I've come across a maternity cover contract that I'm interested in persuing. I know this will be well inside IR35 but with the Agency Worker Regualtions was wondering how this will actually work in practice. The agent is clueless (didn't even know about IR35 as he normally works on perm roles) so I know he won't be much help.

So what I would like to know is, given that there is a clear perm comparator role - will they add up all the financial costs this pregnant employee is costing them now in terms of pay, pension, bonus, annual leave, life assurance etc and then divide it by 225 (accounting for 5 weeks annual leave & 8 banks hols & 2 extra) to get the per day rate? Will the employers NI be added on top or would this come out of my 'wage'? Just for some context this role is a 'Head of' with a total package around £100k.

Given that the whole purpose of the AWR was so that employers could not bring temporary staff on the cheap I would have thought they add up the total cost including the employer NI so it is clear that the temporary worker would not be financially worse off than their current employee. Then the only extra the employer pays is the agency fee.

It would be good to know if anyone has any real examples of this happening in practice as a contract or are employers just using fixed-term contracts to make it simpler?

[northernladuk]

Hi,

I know most of you guys are 'proper contractors' conducting your own business in your own right. But I've come across a maternity cover contract that I'm interested in persuing. I know this will be well inside IR35 but with the Agency Worker Regualtions was wondering how this will actually work in practice. The agent is clueless (didn't even know about IR35 as he normally works on perm roles) so I know he won't be much help.

I would beg to differ, covering a maternity position is not what I would call a perm position. They need someone who is skilled in what she does to carry out a defined set of tasks for a short period. As long as those tasks are well defined I am sure you are still contracting. I would compare this with going for a contract PM. The client has permie PM's but they want you in to do it and leave, you deliver your services (PM'ing) and leave. It could be considered a permie position but you are delivering a specific piece of work.

I think it is acceptable for a contractor to cover a permie position for a short period of time and be outside IR35.

Short term - Tick
Specific deliverables - Tick
Not using any client systems such as expenses/training - Tick
Treated like a rabid dog by permies - Tick..
and so on...

Just have to make sure you act like a buiness and negotiate this to be outside IR35 and get your contract checked. Go in with that head first and let them (or the situation) tell you that you are outside.

[northernladuk]

So what I would like to know is, given that there is a clear perm comparator role - will they add up all the financial costs this pregnant employee is costing them now in terms of pay, pension, bonus, annual leave, life assurance etc and then divide it by 225 (accounting for 5 weeks annual leave & 8 banks hols & 2 extra) to get the per day rate? Will the employers NI be added on top or would this come out of my 'wage'? Just for some context this role is a 'Head of' with a total package around £100k.

Bearing the new mindset from the last post I don't see a comparison. You take a lot more risk on, skills for dropping in to new roles that hit the ground, extra costs using brolly etc and they need you I think you ought to go for the daily rate. I would expect them to offer you one actually..

Thing that I haven't factored in is exactly what the person did you are covering? Wonder if that would make a difference. Possibly depends on how skilled the position. A contractor may be too expensive when covering a generic role.

[cjm10979]

Thing that I haven't factored in is exactly what the person did you are covering? Wonder if that would make a difference. Possibly depends on how skilled the position. A contractor may be too expensive when covering a generic role.[/QUOTE]

The role is the head of a technical team within a niche consultancy. This role does not have any client project deliverables as such as it is the manager of team where team members have the project deliverables. The main purpose of the role will be to ensure that the team are delivering to the consultancy clients' expectations, mentoring & training team members, recruiting as and when necessary and completing client deliverables when team members are on leave/sick. This to me seems very much inside IR35 and hence my original questions.