Insurance

[BoredBloke]

I have a question to throw out to everybody.

Have you ever delayed the previously agreed start of a contract due to contractual problems?

At the moment I am supposed to be starting this contract on Tuesday. The new contract was not in the post this morning, so I will not get it until Monday at the earliest. This leaves very little time for the contract to be reviewed and no time if any changes are needed to be made. If I start the contract but do not agree with the contracts terms and conditions, does my starting imply that I do agree with the current terms and conditions?

What I am planning on doing is calling the agent on Monday to say that I want to send the contract for a review and so will not be able to start the contract on the agreed date. Until it has been checked and it's IR35 status is known, I feel that I should not set foot on the client site. Especially given the anti IR35 state of the first contract and the clause aboutr repaying money.

Also, if a better contract is offered on a different role, what would you do? I have verbally agreed to do this job, but so far they have not sent me a contract which I feel I can sign up to. I have been offered an interview somewhere else, on a massively increased rate (more than double) than this role. Obviously the interview may not lead to an offer, but there is a good chance that it will. So what would you lot do?

[DimPrawn]

Fork em. Take the best offer on the table.

[Fungus]

At my last client site I recall one contractor who turned up on a Monday, spoke to me and a colleague, and then in the afternoon I saw him rush past me towards the exit. That was the last we saw of him. My colleague got the blame for scaring him off. To be honest I resent the slur on my character as I am just as irritating and objectionable.

[bernie]

Tony ... as a business your objective is to maximise your turnover . The nub of the question is is . Is your atttitude to contracting of a business to business type or do you see yourself as a disguised employee. I would not worry too much about offending employment businesses ...they are just an avenue of touting for business.

[BoredBloke]

Bernie,

I agree entirely. I am planning on doing the interview and taking the role if offered. I have allways made a point of sticking by the decisions I have made and if I say I will do a role, then I do that role. However in this case there are 2 factors.

1 - the difference in rate is too great for me to take on the chin. One is 200 per day and the other is over 400.
2 - The contract they sent me was so far off the mark of what I would see as reasonable that I want (and have to) get any other contracts which they send me vetted. This gives the time for me to take the other interview and possibly land the other role.

My feeling is that nobody has come up with a contract which I am willing to sign. And while I am willing to do this role at the lesser rate (although not keen) I cannot until the contract given to me meets my requirements. As such I cannot step foot on the client site until the contractual issues are resolved and in the meantime I am still free to consider other roles.

I'm really bouncing ideas which I will be saying to the agent on Monday.

How many here get their contract professionally veted before going on a client site? Would you start a contract without having this done?

[Mordac]

How many here get their contract professionally veted before going on a client site? Would you start a contract without having this done?

I have it listed in my Ts & Cs on MyCo's Consultant Profile (CV for retards & permies) that all contracts are subject to Bauer & Cottrell's perusal & approval. (It wasn't B&C originally, but having used them recently I'm not planning to go anywhere else). You have to protect yourself, we're potentially talking about a lot of money here. Agencies get their contracts checked and approved by lawyers, so they shouldn't be surprised when we choose to do the same. If more contractors held up proceedings for a few days while someone went through their contracts with the proverbial fine-toothed comb, maybe they'd take the subject more seriously and sort the contracts out beforehand. You can't do anything about the working conditions (tulip, I sound like a fecking trade unionist) though, and therein lies your real problem.

[BoredBloke]

Cheers for the response. So basically you would not start a contract without knowing the review outcome.

Does starting work imply that you agree with the terms and conditions. I know the agency is going to try to push me to start, but I want a number of points to argue back.

Using the old addage that a bird in the hand etc I don't want to lose the cr@ppy job as I may not get the good one. So I want to spin things out a little.

What is their turnaround for a contract review?

[wendigo100]

I have it listed in my Ts & Cs on MyCo's Consultant Profile (CV for retards & permies) ....

Call them what you like, but they are CVs to those who pay the money. I've never been asked to send someone my "Consultant Profile"!

[Mordac]

Call them what you like, but they are CVs to those who pay the money. I've never been asked to send someone my "Consultant Profile"!

You may mock, rather weird looking girlie, but that's what I call it. CVs are for permies.

[Fungus]

Was that me?

Oh.

It was a Monday, I did that on a Wednesday...

He was Welsh but this was in Slough.