Reply to: 12 Month Contract With Immediate Notice of Termination on Both Sides

[northernladuk]

Really? How many claims have you issued in the County Court? I do not subscribe to your slave mentality.

Ask Lance how many Perma bans he's got. I bet it's one less than you.

[Lance]

Really? How many claims have you issued in the County Court? I do not subscribe to your slave mentality.

the fact you mention "innocent" and "compensation" suggest you are talking rubbish. There is no guilty/innocent in civil law. There is some potential for compensation, but usually only legal costs.

And your language.....

[andrew142]

utter rubbish......

Really? How many claims have you issued in the County Court? I do not subscribe to your slave mentality.

[Lance]

award compensation to the 'innocent party.'

utter rubbish......

[andrew142]

Anyone had experience of contracting through PSR (Public Sector Resourcing)? I've received an offer for a 12 month contract and the notice period is zero days on both sides. When I queried this with the consultant he said that yes, unfortunately there is no notice and immediate termination can be given from the client and myself.

Having never had a zero days notice contract, one of 12 month's, or worked through PSR before I'm concerned about this. Should I be worried?

Every contract I have signed has clauses permitting termination by the agency without notice. But certain conditions have to be met. Those conditions will be listed in the clause. Usually it is permitted if the contractor commits serious breaches once or persistently e.g. misconduct. So the contract could be terminated immediately under such clauses. But whether the termination was valid is another matter that can be tested in Court. The Court will decide whether the termination was valid (fair). If the Court sees no evidence of the alleged misconduct and there is some evidence to indicate that no misconduct occurred then the Court may rule the termination invalid and award compensation to the 'innocent party.'

[JohnM]

Always treat any contract as having immediate termination from the client side. This helps you stay balanced instead of concerned.

Exactly that is my mind set

[BlasterBates]

When you leave a customer you always need to think about whether you might want to return. If this is a large company and you plan on a long career as a contractor that is highly likely. Companies can afford to rub up contractors the wrong way, that doesn't work the other way around. That is a fact of life if you're a small business.

[LondonManc]

Sounds great. Every client I know has walked a contractor with zero notice at some point. Serving notice simply saves them making something up and the agent having to soften the blow to you that your services are no longer required and there's no notice to be worked because "insert platitude and excuse here". Demonstrating that you served no notice despite four weeks in the contract is good for IR35 because it shows that financial risk happened (like a less crushing form of life insurance needing to be cashed in!) but this reflects the actuality of what happens in contracting imho.

Just means that if you think it's crap, you can get out on day one without begging anyone to let you go. Also saves messing around with worrying about overlaps at the end of a contract when you're looking for your next one because work is drying up.

[anonymouse]

I would get this clarified as you've already confused the situation with your own wording. It's zero days notice. Not no notice. One is saying I'm going now and they say OK. The other is just going without having to tell anyone. Notice MUST be given, it's just the timelines that are in question. Gotta be really careful. Only takes one person in a chain of three to confuse it and it's all up in the air.

I do think a bit of time making sure everyone is very clear on what this means would be worthwhile. I know I'm being overly pedantic but we get so many threads on here when someone is in a pickle because they didn't do something properly.

PSR are 0 days notice, it's written earlier in the sentence. You're out as soon as you can hand back the Surface Pro.

[northernladuk]

This is deemed as inside IR35 and terms state "Notice Period - 0 days" so I assume from that it means that there is no notice given on either side to terminate. The agency also told me this on the phone so hoping he's not telling porkies!

I would get this clarified as you've already confused the situation with your own wording. It's zero days notice. Not no notice. One is saying I'm going now and they say OK. The other is just going without having to tell anyone. Notice MUST be given, it's just the timelines that are in question. Gotta be really careful. Only takes one person in a chain of three to confuse it and it's all up in the air.

I do think a bit of time making sure everyone is very clear on what this means would be worthwhile. I know I'm being overly pedantic but we get so many threads on here when someone is in a pickle because they didn't do something properly.

[northernladuk]

I am fine with zero days notice. To get a rate rise, I have even negotiated for such in the contract to sweeten something or other.

You must negotiate with some pretty stupid people then? Rate rise for reduction in notice. That's a new one. Unless it's just not true of course.

Does zero days notice help in any way towards some Outside type consideration? Not sure.

Yes it is. I've posted above. Read it and learn something.

[anonymouse]

Interesting.....I was told by the agent that their SLA for this client is 5 working days! I haven't yet accepted though, were you also told this?

I'm through PSR for the same client for the 3rd time, just had a nice 6 month extension offer through.

There's the ball ache of vetting to get through first, but you'll only find that out once accepted (6 to 8 weeks for the last intake)

So the answer is "NO", we weren't told this by the pimp, it was a real process, with real people and documents. But you might be lucky and the agent is telling the truth

[Willy Win]

.....There's the ball ache of vetting to get through first, but you'll only find that out once accepted (6 to 8 weeks for the last intake)

Interesting.....I was told by the agent that their SLA for this client is 5 working days! I haven't yet accepted though, were you also told this?

[Willy Win]

This is deemed as inside IR35 and terms state "Notice Period - 0 days" so I assume from that it means that there is no notice given on either side to terminate. The agency also told me this on the phone so hoping he's not telling porkies!

[northernladuk]

Zero days is your best outcome for IR35. Anything more could indicate the client is likely to keep you on to honour the notice if there is no work to do which demonstrates MoO.

As others have already said you are already effectively on zero days anyway. The client withdraws work, you can't get a timesheet signed so don't get paid. Effectively the same.

Make absolutely sure it is zero days notice and not 'no notice period' which is totally different.