Reply to: Being forced to become a contractor

[centurian]

WHS. It is so illegal that it probably wouldn't even get to court. Your lawyer would contact their lawyer. Their lawyer would then go to them and say words to the effect of "you did WHAT???????????".

Sue the buggers.

I'm pretty sure that if you make someone redundant, then you cannot recruit into that post/role for at least 6 months, otherwise the role is not, by definition, "redundant".

Now making a permie redundant and taking on a contractor isn't quite so cut and dry. They could argue that they are "outsourcing" it to an external company, therefore the internal resource becomes redundant. But I don't think that would cut it with a judge... so as Junkie says, it wouldn't even get to court.

It might be worth trying to understand why they are doing this - and it could be as simple as wanting to juggle (fiddle) the finances. Permie "salary" is often considered a revenue expense which must be accounted in full for that financial year, whereas contractor "costs" can be considered capital expenditure and written off over a number of years. So that manager can show how much money he has "saved" the company.




In the end though, you have to consider what is being offered and weigh that up. If it is a true contractor rate, you may want to go for it. If they basically want to pay you the same amount - just as a contractor, I'd sue them.

Do the sums carefully. The headline contractor amount may seem like more, but once you factor in holiday/training and especially employers NI (you will almost certainly fall inside IR35 due to doing the same work for a previous salaried employer). You may find out if is about the same amount.



Hope that helps

[PM-Junkie]

I'm amazed that none of your colleagues took advice and pulled their employer up on redundancy rights or at the least breach of employment rights and constructive dismissals via employment tribunals.

It's entirely possible that you all could get significant payouts if you took them to the tribunals.

WHS. It is so illegal that it probably wouldn't even get to court. Your lawyer would contact their lawyer. Their lawyer would then go to them and say words to the effect of "you did WHAT???????????".

Sue the buggers.

[SueEllen]

I'm amazed that none of your colleagues took advice and pulled their employer up on redundancy rights or at the least breach of employment rights and constructive dismissals via employment tribunals.

It's entirely possible that you all could get significant payouts if you took them to the tribunals.

And thrown in a discrimination claim for good measure to guarantee they get a decent payout.

[TykeMerc]

I'm amazed that none of your colleagues took advice and pulled their employer up on redundancy rights or at the least breach of employment rights and constructive dismissals via employment tribunals.

It's entirely possible that you all could get significant payouts if you took them to the tribunals.

[pmeswani]

Well I was just curious and I have a couple of friends that still work there and were forced to do this a month before I was.

Are they still there?

[teclo]

The purpose of your original post was?

Well I was just curious and I have a couple of friends that still work there and were forced to do this a month before I was.

[pleomax]

The purpose of your original post was?

I had similar happen to me in June this year, but they tried to make me work the three months notice period in my contract I walked three days after they told me i was redundant.

Been contracting ever since, my bank manager has loved me ever since.....

[teclo]

At the time I did say to him that he was effectively making me redundant and that this was my 4 weeks notice. He assured me that I was wrong, that it was going to be mutually beneficial for both myself and the company etc etc. Blah blah.

That was on the Wednesday, the next day I got a call from an agent about a good contracting position and they set an interview up for the following day.

The next day I had the interview and at 4:30 on that Friday afternoon I left two letters of resignation and walked out to start my contracting career on the Monday.

That was in March and I haven't looked back. Well apart from the point where I was benched for 6 weeks at the end of October, but I have another contract to cover me until the middle of January.

[Cheshire Cat]

COuldn't agree more with the above posts. they're not "forcing you to become a contractor".
they're sacking you without due notice or redundancy pay
OTOH they're also giving you another job.

Do the maths and see what your best route would be.

[b0redom]

Don't forget if you go with option 2, you're likely to be out fairly quickly anyway.....

[SantaClaus]

I think you should weigh up:

1. How much redundancy you will get from permie employer.
2. What sort of contracting rate you can shaft employer with.
3. How much you can sue employer for because he has broken the law.

Take the better of the 3 options.

[teclo]

Oh this happened earlier this year, and I left them a couple of days later with a nice shiny new contract for more money somewhere else.

I was just curious as they forced everyone in the company to become contractors.

[pmeswani]

If you are a permie, how legal is it for your boss to come to you one day and say "At the end of the month, you will become a contractor. You will then contract your work to us"?

It's illegal. It's them trying to find a way to get rid of you on the cheap. Tell them that they are effectively sacking you. Go and speak to the Citizens Advice Bureau and get some proper advise on how to progress, and do it quick.

[b0redom]

Erm, about 0%. They are effectivly making you redundant with all the legal bits and pieces that entails.

[pleomax]

...OK who walked over the IR35 trolls bridge?