Originally posted by Table
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Welcome to contracting. You'll find that this varies year by year and client by client. I was served notice at Client 1 and worked and invoiced the full four weeks. I was served notice at Client 2 because they'd had the budget pulled - I wasn't going to work without being paid so instant leave. You're paid far more than a permie to build up a war chest to cover these times.
It all boils down to the contract. If there are two clauses in there, one about only being paid when submitting an invoice and approved timesheet and one about notice, the notice period is irrelevant. If you're not allowed on site/access to site, you're not going to be able to carry out any invoiceable work. It's often worth asking around to see what a particular client is like in terms of do they often cut contracts short and do they generally let you serve your notice.
Similarly I've seen people walked on the spot. They've come out of an office with a hiring manager, ten minutes later, all that remains in the office is their pass.
Here's the most important bit though; while sympathetic to your situation, the agency will ALWAYS back the client because they're the one with the money, while you're simply the agency's mechanism for relieving them of it. They can replace you far more easily than they can replace the client.
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