Rate renegotiation

[NickNick]

It is the only way to do it. If you aren't going to they won't take you seriously.

Did he work out if the 5% increase will cover the lost billing time over the duration of the gig? Gonna take a long time to make up 4 days lost with only a 5% increase.

5 days lost billing, and the rate incrase that came through was a rather pleasant 10% for 9 more months. So the lost earnings will be re-couped over a couple of months.

[stek]

The outcome was that my friend parted ways with client co at the end of the contract as they were unable to negotiate an increased rate. In actual fact there was no negotiation, just a rejection.
4 Days later they called back and agreed to his initial incrased rate without any further hoo ha. So he's back on site and happy with it.

I guess it pays to stick to your guns some times.

I did that one, knew agent was trying to cream £50 a day off me on top of his commission with the old 'that's all the client is willing to pay..' story having previously agreed the rate...

Told him I wasn't interested then, and hung up. And I was benched, unusually ballsy for me but I was uber confident he'd come back.

He did, two weeks later, thought I'd bolluxed it!

[northernladuk]

I guess it pays to stick to your guns some times.

It is the only way to do it. If you aren't going to they won't take you seriously.

Did he work out if the 5% increase will cover the lost billing time over the duration of the gig? Gonna take a long time to make up 4 days lost with only a 5% increase.

[NickNick]

The outcome was that my friend parted ways with client co at the end of the contract as they were unable to negotiate an increased rate. In actual fact there was no negotiation, just a rejection.
4 Days later they called back and agreed to his initial incrased rate without any further hoo ha. So he's back on site and happy with it.

I guess it pays to stick to your guns some times.

[NickNick]

Interesting comments. I'd not considered that the business cases were about the agency cutting their margin.
I will ask my friend what the outcome was.

[BlasterBates]

Talking of rate re-negotiation, here's an odd situation that a "friend" of mine finds himself in. At extension time, the friend informed the agency that as costs had increased in performing the role, the new rate for the role would be X. (an uplift of about 5%, so not too extreme)

The agency involved replied with "We wish you luck in your future endevours" and that was that.

The Friend informed Client Co about this and they quickly put together a business case as to why the friend should be kept on at the higher rate and delivered this to the agency.

What on earth is that all about? Why would a Client have to delver a business case to an agency as to why they want to retain a certain contractor?

Quite evidently the client wanted the agent to take a cut to give the contractor his increase, i.e. they were not going to raise their rate. So they had to persuade the agency why.

There is often a margin at which agencies give up on the business because it isn´t worth while, I´ve seen this happen before where an agency told a contractor to go and sort out his contract with the client through another agency because it wasn´t worth it.

[Dominic Connor]

Talking of rate re-negotiation, here's an odd situation that a "friend" of mine finds himself in. At extension time, the friend informed the agency that as costs had increased in performing the role, the new rate for the role would be X. (an uplift of about 5%, so not too extreme)

The agency involved replied with "We wish you luck in your future endevours" and that was that.

The Friend informed Client Co about this and they quickly put together a business case as to why the friend should be kept on at the higher rate and delivered this to the agency.

What on earth is that all about? Why would a Client have to delver a business case to an agency as to why they want to retain a certain contractor?

Seems to me to be two possibilities...

1: The "business case" was to tell the agency to take a smaller cut.
2: The business case was within the client's bureaucracy and the version that reached you was mangled.

Clients sometimes do hold agents responsible for non-renewals, seeing this as part of the management of the assignment, also at some places a "managing" agent is in place.
This is not good for anyone except the managing agent. They (surpise ?) want to get the other agencies contractors out, so screw you around and then replace you with one of theirs.

The phrase "Resource Solutions" come to mind at this point in time.

[northernladuk]

Talking of rate re-negotiation, here's an odd situation that a "friend" of mine finds himself in. At extension time, the friend informed the agency that as costs had increased in performing the role, the new rate for the role would be X. (an uplift of about 5%, so not too extreme)

The agency involved replied with "We wish you luck in your future endevours" and that was that.

The Friend informed Client Co about this and they quickly put together a business case as to why the friend should be kept on at the higher rate and delivered this to the agency.

What on earth is that all about? Why would a Client have to delver a business case to an agency as to why they want to retain a certain contractor?

Business case, phone call to agent, whatever... It doesn't really matter what was sent over. The key is the client are clipping the wings of the agent and the agent won't want to piss the client off so he gives in. Just part of the game. I think it was a pretty cheeky move by the agent and I would expect in no way meant what it said. For 5% I expect he was sitting there waiting for the phone to ring and the contractor say OK I will take it. Just went straight for the jugular. Nothing new here.

[NickNick]

Talking of rate re-negotiation, here's an odd situation that a "friend" of mine finds himself in. At extension time, the friend informed the agency that as costs had increased in performing the role, the new rate for the role would be X. (an uplift of about 5%, so not too extreme)

The agency involved replied with "We wish you luck in your future endevours" and that was that.

The Friend informed Client Co about this and they quickly put together a business case as to why the friend should be kept on at the higher rate and delivered this to the agency.

What on earth is that all about? Why would a Client have to delver a business case to an agency as to why they want to retain a certain contractor?

[stek]

This is something I might to think about, I've booked all my Ryanair flights till end of contract, I'm hearing now on the grapevine my predecessor left because of being effed about with last minute renewals, if that happens to me i'll get stung on the flight costs, hence more cash! Plus I'll go over my 183 days and whilst that's no problem in itself, it's more paperwork and more accounting work to pay for.

So I'm gonna start the clock with one month to go, speak to agent, get the CV rewritten, remove some of the crap in there so I won't get anymore Windows 2012 Server Expert' roles cos I've got 'Windows XP' mentioned somewhere....

[northernladuk]

There is no thought whatsoever put in to this post so not worth explaining it all but just a thought for you. Why do you think you are worth the rate rise? Put yourself in the client shoes. What are you delivering over and above what you were when you started?

[TheFaQQer]

Is it necessary to request a rate rise at the time of being offered an extension

No. Asking for a rate increase is never necessary.

, or can I do this a couple months into the extension without (particularly IR35-related) issues?

You can ask them if they will terminate the current agreement and form a new one with your company at a higher rate. Do not be surprised if they only take you up on the the first part of that, though.

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

Why would you think there would be a connection between negotiating a rate increase and IR35?

[Scrag Meister]

Is it necessary to request a rate rise at the time of being offered an extension, or can I do this a couple months into the extension without (particularly IR35-related) issues?

I wouldn't have thought an increase would be considered mid-contract.

Better to get it sorted at renewal. IMHO

[xara]

Is it necessary to request a rate rise at the time of being offered an extension, or can I do this a couple months into the extension without (particularly IR35-related) issues?