Help please - contract termination

[TK421]

Hi,

I started my first contract for a large outsourcing company (let's just call them Y for the time being!) in April for three months. At the end of that, they offered me an extension through to December 31st. Both of these contracts had the following termination clause "Four weeks in writing by Y Resourcing. The Contractor is not permitted to give notice" (pretty naive, but there you go!). The company Y has their own sub-division "Y Resourcing" who acted as the agent in this.

Some time ago, I questioned the design of one of the modules I was meant to build, which had a number of design flaws in it. After a couple of weeks of arguing with the solution architect (permanent employee), I conceded defeat, but as the technical development team lead felt that I was right to have raised my concerns. During the debate, the solution architect emailed the whole project team saying that my concerns were clearly a lack of understanding about the product, which wasn't correct. I had a meeting with the project manager 2 weeks ago and asked whether they wanted me to go and was assured that she and the programme manager wanted me to stay until the end of the year, but would understand if I wanted out and would let me go if I wanted. I told them that I felt that there was still a job to do, since the rest of the development was fairly complicated and that there was still lots that I could offer.

On Friday morning (yesterday), the agent rang me and said that she had been told to terminate the contract with immediate effect, and that they would not be paying the four weeks notice. I asked what the grounds were, and was told that she didn't know but would put it in the termination letter. I spoke to someone senior on the project (who was on my side) and he said that what he had been told was that people on the project were concerned about something I wrote on my blog, which implied that the way that they were building the solution wasn't what I would expect. The blog entry did not mention the end customer by name, and said something like "recently I was working...". I'd also put some comments in code on a development instance which they weren't happy with, which explained some of the design decisions (basically to cover me in the future).

The termination letter arrived this morning, and the clause that they are using to terminate the contract says "Without prejudice to any other rights and remedies to which the Company may be entitled to under this Agreement, the Company may forthwith terminate this Agreement by written notice to the Contractor if...the Client indicates to the Company that it is not satisfied with the performance of the Contractor or their Representative".

My feeling is that they still owe me four weeks notice (I'm not upset about leaving the project, which wasn't that good, but they should pay some notice!), as they are terminating the contract early. I don't think that the end client would have any feelings one way or another about my performance - we work off-site and I've only met them once in the four months that I've been there. If the agency is claiming that the client asked to have me removed, am I within my rights to ask them to provide details of this request? Should I go back to the customer and ask them to confirm that they asked me to leave? Should I go to the customer and raise my build concerns with them (at the moment, they ae blissfully unaware of the issues, since they are paying lots of money for expert advice and guidance that they're not getting)? Should I just forget about it and move on? Should I go to the press? Should I sue???

I think they owe me 20 days pay - what does anyone else think? Any advie gratefully received.

TIA

[MarillionFan]

This happened to me at the beginning of the year. (Not Mcgregor Boyle is it?)

Cut a long story, it was bollocks for my termination(same as yours) - I went down the legal route, asking for a) Money for whole contract, b) Then the notice. Spent about £300 on legal letters, until it reached a point where I had to sue. "terminate this Agreement by written notice to the Contractor if...the Client indicates to the Company that it is not satisfied with the performance of the Contractor or their Representative" is exactly the same clause as outlined by to me. Legally its bollocks the client has to prove that you were tulip, not just say it. So you need a more detailed letter off the agency as the clause is tulipe- so if you want your money you can ask frist, then threaten to sue. For me, I have to sue if i want it.

I can still sue, and may well still do it. But the cost vs what I will win will pretty much balance out.

[malvolio]

Or, you take the pragmatic view. tulip happens. You're a freelance, you're a professional, you could care less about the client's staff making bad decisions and screwing up. Get on with the next contract, this one's dead and gone.

Yes, you can go down the legal route, it will take a long time, cost a lot of money and all you acheive is screwing up the time you need for the next role ("Are you fully committed to this new job?" "Well, no, actually I'll need some time off for this court case I'm involved in"...).

Walk away. It is really not worth the grief.

[MarillionFan]

"Walk away. It is really not worth the grief."

Well yes, you can do that. Its the pussies way. If you're a pussy and you're happy to be someones bitch well fine. They're all laughing at you, especially the technical architect. Mal here would take it, he likes taking it here . But you? Are you a pussy? ARE YOU?

[Diestl]

Perhaps next time you want slate a company on your public blog, also if you're job was to implement the design then why cause problems for yourself by arguing about design flaws? As long as you get paid, unless you were responsible for the design, then you have a point.

[TheMonkey]

They owe you hard earned cash. Go after it!!

It's often cheaper to go to small claims and just claim the ceiling amount they handle as you don't need legal representation there which would eat all of your money anyway. I tend to pay a visit to the agency. They can't usually turn you away when you arrive on site without an appointment, especially when they have clients around and you might just start shouting at how crap they are.

Certain agencies treat you like crap and ignore you if you get terminated but it's your job to go after it.

And if you're like me, I think I just got the architect at my current gig either fired or in the deep crap as the product is not scalable due to his current crap design (entire logic tier inside SQL).

[VectraMan]

My contract says 4 weeks notice too, but I've always assumed that was worthless. Surely the whole mutality of obligation thing means they're under no obligation to have work for you, and can just tell you not to come in for those last 4 weeks? It's a strange double standard to claim to be paid just for the work that's required, and then also claim to be entitled to compensation in the event of early termination.

The project I was taken on to do is due to be finished about a month before the end of my contract, so I might well find myself in a similar situation soon. Ideally they'll let me go a month early but still pay for the month, but I suspect I'll end up twiddling my thumbs for eight hours a day.

Also have to say that if somebody working for me put information about the project on a public blog, I'd have them thrown out the building and consider it a breach of confidentiality, even if nothing confidential was revealed. That's really very unprofessional.

[malvolio]

"Walk away. It is really not worth the grief."

Well yes, you can do that. Its the pussies way. If you're a pussy and you're happy to be someones bitch well fine. They're all laughing at you, especially the technical architect. Mal here would take it, he likes taking it here . But you? Are you a pussy? ARE YOU?

Really don't understand, do you? It will cost more than the amount owing to get it back, in time and energy spent as much as legal fees. And having an early termination with loss of earnings means you cannot be taken for IR35 on this contract, whereas demanding that you are being paid notice when there is clearly no work means you almost certainly will be - ever heard of Mutuality? And the extra tax bill will probably be a lot more than four weeks gross less fees.

It's not about macho, it's about business sense and wasted effort..

[oraclesmith]

Take the contract and any correspondence and a print of your blog to a free half hour appointment with the partner of a proper business law firm (ie. one that deals with business and contract law as their main business). They should be able to tell you whether it is worth pursuing and how much it might cost you as they will have had experience of this in the past.

Remember it's not employment law, it's business law and you are claiming a breach of contract. The company obviously believe that your firms staff (ie. you) have violated a clause in the business to business contract which permits them to terminate the contract with your firm without notice.

Next time :-

(a) read the contract properly and make sure you understand the clauses.

(b) don't sound off in blogs etc about any disagreement you have with your client

(b) don't sound off in code comments - it only serves to upset them and give them evidence

(c) raise any issues you have once and once only in a calm and factual manner with a responsible permie manager and record the details (ie. send a confirmation e-mail) .

(d) if they don't agree, remember you are only a hired hand and it's their responsibility if their project goes tits up

(e) remember that permies don't really want you around anyway so don't get their backs up and don't give them an excuse to get rid of you.

[Asterix]

First one

It's your first contract, so at least you've learnt something from it. Try not to get yourself cornered again and forced to be on constant defence. From what you said, the writing was on the wall since the argument you had. If someone is a permie and has been working in the same place for a few years, chances are that his network/influence/etc is better than yours, n'est pas ? In future avoid writing anything that can be construed as offensive, demeaning etc. Do not e-mail, call people, or even better talk to them face to face. This is anothewr unfortunate story that tells us that although someone can be brilliant in technical skils, the lack of people ones and poor communication does not make a good all-round contractor.
PS I wouldn't bother going down the legal route, no-one as far as I can remember has ever come on this site and told us that they've successfully sued and got money due for a notice period, don't let people mislead you. I've seen 'breach of contract' being touted around all teh time as an excuse.