Does professional working day imply no weekends?

[BHicks]

Guys, got a question that I thought some of you have come up against and I haven't found anything conclusively that points me in the right direction.

Currently in a gig where the contract states that it's a standard service week (SSW) consisting of 5 professional working days (PWD). There is a provision for "excess" charges for work outside of the SSW which as long as it's agreed/requested by the client is fine.

Up to this point, this has meant 5 days a week, Mon to Fri with occasional weekend work by mutual agreement which has been paid.

The client has recently suggested that going forward, where there is a need for any weekend work, they would look to "reduce" the days worked during the week to "compensate". The implication being that for any given week, they wouldn't be prepared to sign off any timesheets for more than 5 days.

Allegedly this is being introduced because of budgets constraints, blah blah blah.

Now, leaving aside what I think of that fact that it's money out of my pocket and that the budget to cover my contract was presumably allocated when the renewal was issued, my question is this:

Does a "Professional Working Day" imply only weekdays, or would weekend days also fall under that definition. The contract has no explicit definition of what constitutes a PWD.

[malvolio]

AFAIC a Professional Working Day means that if I do any work for you in a 24 hour period you get charged the agreed amount. As soon as you start defining hours and numbers of days, it's no longer a PWD. Also if they start defining how many days a week you are allowed to work, that is a higher level of D&C than I would be happy with.

If it's not in the contract you aren't bound by it and have to rely on mutual agreement.

[Smartie]

As a business they're trying to reduce their costs and unfortunately budgets aren't set, then inviolate for the rest of the year.
If they use the same technique for the permies i.e. work a weekend then have days off 'in lieu' then that's probably not great for you.

If your business isn't happy to provide resource under their new proposals then it's a negotiation and if they're trying it on they'll probably relent. If there's a lot of pressure to reduce costs then I guess they'll give you notice under the contract.

[TheFaQQer]

The client has recently suggested that going forward, where there is a need for any weekend work, they would look to "reduce" the days worked during the week to "compensate".

If they are going to reduce the number of days off by more than the increase, ie. work four days and invoice for five if one of those days is on a weekend, then that might be OK.

I don't generally work weekends - even more so if I'm working away.

[d000hg]

Mon-Fri only really applies to some types of work. Shops and most customer-facing businesses treat Saturday as a regular working day for instance.

Seems really down to discussion on a case-by-case basis. I don't know you can claim to be entlled to extra money because it's a weekend day, if they ask you to work Tue-Sat instead of Mon-Fri but you run into issues of who is dictating when you work... is it D&C or is it the case the work specifically needs to be done on the weekend?

[kevpuk]

My current contract specifies a Professional Working Day as being any day other than Bank Holidays and weekends.
A month or so back, there was a need for the whole wider team I am working with to work Good Friday, and Client asked me whether I could make myself available. I didn't really want to, preferring long weekend with the kids etc., but was prepared to 'muck in' a little, but said that I would need to get the contract amended to cater. Client was fine about this, agreed to pay rate + half (I went for x2 but hey-ho).....quick call to agent, agent faffed around with Client HR or similar, amended contract term inserted and signed.
Only worked around 5hrs on Good Friday, well paid and a supply of Client bought pizza, chicken and cakes to make the day go by

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Personally I don't think there is anything wrong with the client limiting the maximum number of days you work in a given period - they are entitled to keep a control of their costs. But unless you've agreed to charge a higher rate at weekends then I don't see how it makes a difference when the work is done.

[BHicks]

Personally I don't think there is anything wrong with the client limiting the maximum number of days you work in a given period - they are entitled to keep a control of their costs. But unless you've agreed to charge a higher rate at weekends then I don't see how it makes a difference when the work is done.

I don't mind the client keeping an eye on their costs, but when they decide they want to move the goalposts mid contract (and not by mutual agreement) then there is something wrong with that.

As for not seeing how it makes a difference, consider the following scenario:

Basic working month: 20 days (Mon to Fri, 4 weeks).
Weekend work: anywhere from 3 to 6 days (over the month).
Total month: 23 to 26 days.

Under the proposed scheme:

Basic working month: 14 to 17 days.
Weekend work: 3 to 6 days
Total month: 20 days

So, I'd have the aggravation of working at the weekend (which doesn't attract a higher rate), coupled with the fact that I'm billing for 3 to 6 days less each month. I don't know about you but that prospect doesn't exactly fill me with joy. Maybe I'm just odd that way.

Mon-Fri only really applies to some types of work. Shops and most customer-facing businesses treat Saturday as a regular working day for instance.

That's not applicable to the sector concerned where the standard working week is Mon-Fri (if we're talking permiedom).

Seems really down to discussion on a case-by-case basis. I don't know you can claim to be entlled to extra money because it's a weekend day,

Umm, who said anything about extra money. Per the contract if I work on a given day, I get paid, simples.

if they ask you to work Tue-Sat instead of Mon-Fri but you run into issues of who is dictating when you work... is it D&C or is it the case the work specifically needs to be done on the weekend?

The weekend work (when it occurs) has to take place at the weekend by its nature. That's not the say that the work for Mon-Fri magically goes away, it doesn't. The work still has to be done, it will just be done by fewer people (in their brave new world).

Lets cut to the chase. Weekend work is a pain in the arse, especially when it imposes on family commitments. There's no double time or time and a half that applies, it's at the standard rate. The only thing that makes it tolerable is that you're financially better off and it's not that frequent.

However,once they start playing silly buggers saying "we'd like to agree a day (or two) of 'non provision of services' to balance out the weekend work", then I'm sorry, that's taking the piss and they can do one.

As for the budget not covering the weekend work, well any sensible/half decent manager who knows that weekend work is required (and it is not a new requirement for the team/systems concerned) would factor that into their budget from the outset.

[Scruff]

This is part of normal business risk, I'm afraid? Your expectations are not that unusual. Your number of invoicing days is irrelevant other than to you, so the choices are to accept or walk away.

[CheeseSlice]

So you've been stitched up by the clientco and the vagueness of your contract. Next time make sure the contract states your services are to be performed 5 days per week (at the given daily rate) mon-fri. Unless I knew up front that w/e work was going to be required I wont even make it possible for them to be covered in the contract. You can always negotiate them later on and set rates appropriately without undermining your mon-fri work.

If its a major problem can you clarify the contract by changing the T&Cs wording and having it reissued? If they don't accept then terminate (if your contract lets you).