Reply to: please help - termination nightmare!!

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

An umbrella company is the same as any other employer - you work under a Contract of Employment; if you want to terminate that contract, you need to give notice. It would be highly unlikely that the contract contained any sort of covenant preventing you from working elsewhere but you should check.
Just a note for the future - contracts are legally binding and you should never enter into one without first having read it.

[NotAllThere]

You can have more than one employer. In a normal work situation, your contract with an employer would stipulate you need their permission to work for someone else. The way you can check this is to read your contract. What does your contract with the umbrella company say? If it says nothing about needing their permission to work for another company - which is extremely likely - then you haven't got a problem.

In the extremely unlikely event that they give you any grief, post here and you'll get more advice on how to handle it.

As far as dream jobs go... do you remember some of your dreams...

[mrmonkey]

How many assignments did you do with the umbrella? If it was just one and you were claiming mileage you might have a little problem to sort out.

Just 1 assignment which was extended 3 times - the assignment contract then ended early with me working out my 1 month notice when I got offered my full time job.

I never claimed any milage, infact i didn't even claim any expenses for the last year or so!

[northernladuk]

How many assignments did you do with the umbrella? If it was just one and you were claiming mileage you might have a little problem to sort out.

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

What others have said.

Don't fret you aren't restricted from taking another job, it's a admin issue in closing your relationship with the 'brolly.

As someone said, worst case is emergency tax till its sorted out.

Hopefully Lisa will stop by and explain, but I suspect this is something to do with umbrella expenses rules.

HTH

[NickFitz]

As has been said, it's just a technicality. They'll probably send your P45 straight out if you ask. At most, they may need a timesheet for the month indicating that you worked zero hours, or something like that.

Good luck with the new job

EDIT: having re-read your first paragraph, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it isn't just that their system is set up to send out that email automatically, and somebody forgot to turn it off in your case where it's not needed.

[mudskipper]

yea thats correct. my worry is they would smell blood and charge some admin fee for cancelling the notice period early and threatening to not let me work elsewhere.

They won't. Your new employer may query why you don't have a P45 and why, when you do get one, it shows you working for someone else for the extra month, but you should be able to explain.

[mrmonkey]

yea thats correct. my worry is they would smell blood and charge some admin fee for cancelling the notice period early and threatening to not let me work elsewhere.

[Wanderer]

I'm also petrified I will lose my dream job which i'm supposed to start tomorrow because they wouldn't wait a month for me to be stuck in this limbo

So you were a contractor through an umbrella and now you are starting a permie job? Don't worry about it, it's fine.

Just email the umbrella on Monday and tell them that you are resigning with immediate effect.

There is no reason why you can't have two jobs either.....

[mrmonkey]

Ah good so they cannot say "well you cant work for anyone else"?

oh and the new job is a full time position, not a contract or anything.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond

[BlasterBates]

no they´re just fulfiling some legal requirement about notice periods. You have nothing to fear. The Umbrella is not going to be paying several grand for some agent to find work for you, and they´re not going to pay you your full salary for some "token" admin work in their own office.

You may be technically employed but you are free to start new assignments.

[mrmonkey]

oh and with regards to telling the umbrella - I didn't think for one minute that they would think I was still 'employed' by them when the contract was over. I assumed that once a contract is over it is over for all parties and the employment contract would end based on that, not that you have to terminate both the job AND the employment with the umbrella company.

[mrmonkey]

Also sorry for putting it in the general forum, I wasn't sure where this all fits in, its all such a headache :/

[mrmonkey]

Thanks for the reply guys.

They arent offering me any more assignments, they just said to tell them 'when i find a new assignment or if i plan on taking a break'

I was/am worried that as i am technically their employee that they could stop me working during the notice period, or that there is some HRMC dogyness about being paid by my new company while still technically at another, even if that one isn't obviously paying me anything. Hopefully they will just say to forget the notice period as they don't get anything out of it.

[cojak]

Duly moved...