Reply to: First days of a contract

[northernladuk]

The umbrella manager was a she and they happen to post on this forum. Nice lady you all seem to respect.

Well we respect her alright. Nice lady? Let's just say I'd hate to forget her birthday.

Oh hang on.. lady? Ah, cant be who I'm thinking of then

[herman_g]

Did he expand on this any further. Seems an odd statement. But maybe not for this thread.

The umbrella manager was a she and they happen to post on this forum. Nice lady you all seem to respect.

[northernladuk]

The umbrella manager stated that was all bollocks as I had an inside-IR35 contract was covered under employment law. .

Did he expand on this any further. Seems an odd statement. But maybe not for this thread.

[cannon999]

I'd be billing for it - not my circus not my monkeys.

In good faith they've asked you to start on x date and they promised to deliver laptop etc. They haven't. For that week, you've possibly forgone the chance of another gig, had to stay at home etc waiting to start.

If they refused to pay then I dont think I'd be staying...

Completely agree. I would bill for this as well.

[herman_g]

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the same smaller bank that pulled something similar on me a few months back (as I have seen articles in the last week chronicling the layoff they have just decided on). I flew into the Uk in May (live in Greece), spent 8 of 10 days in quarantine in a hotel, received their laptop and then got an email on Friday (was supposed to be a Monday start) telling me my offer had been withdrawn due to a cut budget and they would generously pay me 2 weeks notice. The umbrella manager stated that was all bollocks as I had an inside-IR35 contract was covered under employment law. They promptly paid the invoice.

Tail between my legs, I headed home to a quiet phone until it started to ring off the hook a week later. I now have a great fully remote role with a Dutch bank (one of three sudden offers).


I hope these b**tards have either paid up or set you free. Life's too short to put up with such disrespect.

[psychocandy]

I'd be billing for it - not my circus not my monkeys.

In good faith they've asked you to start on x date and they promised to deliver laptop etc. They haven't. For that week, you've possibly forgone the chance of another gig, had to stay at home etc waiting to start.

If they refused to pay then I dont think I'd be staying...

[PerfectStorm]

You can certainly be proactive and work with your agency to draw up a new contract that either replaces the existing one with a new end date, or an extension for the end.

If they end up offering an extension that runs into the months rather than the days, then the notion of "the missing days from way back when" will start to become less and less relevant and you may as well forget about them at that point - all part of the game.

[SmCh21]

Not without a new contract and possibly a rate rise.

Why should you pay for their errors?

Why do they think they bought a chunk of working hours when you have a time-bounded contract? (Although that assumes that is what you do have - perhaps a careful reading of the Ts&Cs is in order.)

What are you there to deliver - a piece of work or n hours of some sort of BaU?

Personally I would leave at your current contract end anyway. They are not a good place to be working imho.

The contract looks like any regular temp contract. The job description is BAU and the contract just says I need to be working there between set date - set date, around 40 hrs a week. No statement of work. The agency has looked over it and said the same as you - it's not my issue the client wasn't ready and I shouldn't be out of pocket for it.

As someone else pointed out though, the payment terms state I need an approved timesheet. I will have to accept if they still refuse to pay, but I won't stay on at the end.

Thanks for your advice.

[malvolio]

Thank you for posting this thread which is exactly the same as my situation - inside IR35.

I was willing to compromise and just put in a timesheet from the day I actually received the equipment and couldn't start because my permissions STILL hadn't been requested. The timesheet was purposefully ignored...

The agency says I should be paid right from the first day, but Client co says no. Monday will be interesting. The client wants me to work all the missed days at the end of the contract.

Not without a new contract and possibly a rate rise.

Why should you pay for their errors?

Why do they think they bought a chunk of working hours when you have a time-bounded contract? (Although that assumes that is what you do have - perhaps a careful reading of the Ts&Cs is in order.)

What are you there to deliver - a piece of work or n hours of some sort of BaU?

Personally I would leave at your current contract end anyway. They are not a good place to be working imho.

[zonkkk]

My situation exactly with one of my current contracts. (Outside IR35 though). Something to be expected, with fully remote contracts.
Laptop didn't arrive on time. I just told them I won't be billing them until I get it.

I am lucky to have another contract going though.

[SmCh21]

thanks folks, for putting in a timesheet for the days, and will see if they sign it off, but not holding my breath

Thank you for posting this thread which is exactly the same as my situation - inside IR35.

I was willing to compromise and just charged them from the day I actually received the equipment, but couldn't start because my permissions STILL hadn't been requested. The timesheet was ignored...

The agency says I should be paid right from the first day, but Client says no. Monday will be interesting.

[Glencky]

Never worked anywhere where it would've been. A week's effort for a contractor is a trivial rounding error in the places I work, in the context where if you use a lot of contractors you don't want a reputation for shafting people. There's 'professional contractor, it comes with the territory' and then there's shafting people. I have made bigger concessions than this on that basis when I was a hiring manager; as a contractor I've had hiring managers make similar (but smaller) concessions for me. Unoffered.

[northernladuk]

Good luck sorting it out. If I was the hiring manager in this circumstance, assuming this is just the kind of coordination delay I mention above, I'd be paying you and trying to get you invited to certain Teams type meetings/ meet and greets so you could at least use some of the time.

If your budget is tied to your bonus I bet you wouldn't.

[Glencky]

Yep, interesting. It hadn't occurred to me that this scenario would pan out this way once wfh was standard. As others have said, it's really common (at least for a small number of days) but in normal times you'd be in the office and the hiring manager would just be panicking trying to get you the kit so they don't have to babysit you 8 hours a day! (I've been that person). You'd have stuff printed, you'd trail people to meetings, you'd have 'get to know you' coffees with key contacts, and the laptop would arrive and you'd get started on the raft of 'new joiner' regulatory training (in financial services, at least).

The 'ask them to send you stuff to your personal email' is a bad idea depending on industry - definitely don't do it in financial services, healthcare or the like - worst possible first impression, asking people to break rules that are actually really important.

I'm sorry you're in this situation - ultimately you need to find a way to apply pressure. If you're sat in the office looking at them the pressure is inherently there. In this situation it's too easy for them to mess you around. You need to try and get the timesheet signed, complain like hell to your agent and politely to the client/ your hiring manager. And in the meantime - yes, if it's important to you that you have the income soon then get looking again for something else.

A lot of this is industry specific. In financial services, these days with the level of vetting etc, even with a pretty slick onboarding process you won't move from interview to bum on seat inside a month for most places. Internal service levels for laptop etc procurement tend to be 1 to 2 weeks, but that can't usually start until the vetting process is at a certain point. So there's coordination on the hiring manager side to get everything to land at the same time. That's why it's so common to not quite manage it. I am normally impressed if I've got a laptop and basic login sometime on Day 1, and impressed if i've gotten access to everything I need and every piece of kit (secure token etc, although now it's all apps) AND gotten through all the joiners training inside the first 2 weeks. It can actually be a bit of light relief between meeting dozens of new people and absorbing loads of new information I find, but it does mean you've got an inherent delay before hitting the ground running!

Good luck sorting it out. If I was the hiring manager in this circumstance, assuming this is just the kind of coordination delay I mention above, I'd be paying you and trying to get you invited to certain Teams type meetings/ meet and greets so you could at least use some of the time.

[eek]

This is an inside gig. I’d just put in an invoice and say that you’re a temporary employee with a contract and no one told you you couldn’t work and leave it at that.

Obviously as everyone else has said keep looking too.

That would be my point of view as well but there is a separate issue.

Most umbrella firms regard contractors as their product and the agency as their customer.