Reply to: Barcrap scr3w their contractors again to the tune of 10%

[Scruff]

21% is a tad extreme mind. In more than one go I take it?

Yep - they knocked 10% off on the day before the contract start date and then the balance after 4 months.

[psychocandy]

Virgin Media cut our rates 21% in 4 months and I walked...After 6 weeks the remaining 8 contractors did too!

21% is a tad extreme mind. In more than one go I take it?

[cojak]

Virgin Media cut our rates 21% in 4 months and I walked...After 6 weeks the remaining 8 contractors did too!

And their rates are absolutely crap to start with (trying to get people in for £150 pd less than the going rate has only one outcome...)

[GillsMan]

Yes, I got notification of this too. Which was interesting to me, because I'd declined their contract renewal offer, so I wasn't sure why I was being told that the rate was being slashed.

I told them that I absolutely would have rejected had I still be in contract. Do one!!

[Lockhouse]

I walked at RBS over a rate cut. I just CBA with it any more.

[Scruff]

Virgin Media cut our rates 21% in 4 months and I walked...After 6 weeks the remaining 8 contractors did too!

[Dallas]

Hate it when employers/clients describe the working environment as "we work hard but play hard".

Usually means we work the nuts off you with long hours and you're going to need a pint or two on the way home to destress or you'll lose it.

We regularly did all-nighters at the local strip club home for shower and back into the office.

[AnthonyQuinn]

Dont whinge

What kind of organisation enters into contractual agreements with other companies with the express intention of not honouring those contracts but reissuing at a 10% discount? Year-on-year for the last 3 years.

And they make this big thing of the Barclays 'VALUES' and their RESPECT initiative. What a total load of tulipe. Stay well clear of this shower.

You are in business and you cannot dictate to your clients what they can and cant do. They pay you and thats all the 'RESPECT' they owe you. If they have been getting away with annual rate cuts then obviously they were paying too much in the first place.

[psychocandy]

Rubbish - I am still getting a steady 5-7 specs a week for decent roles at good rates.

Barcap was my last permie; its a feisty bank with a high turnover but we played hard too

Hate it when employers/clients describe the working environment as "we work hard but play hard".

Usually means we work the nuts off you with long hours and you're going to need a pint or two on the way home to destress or you'll lose it.

[Mephisto]

Man up and decline the cut. They'll probably keep you on at the same rate, tell you not to tell anyone and can you along with the sheep who took the cut when it suits them.

When I was there in 2011 the message was immediate termination if you didn't comply with the rate cut. Then the bounders finished us all by Christmas (instead of March) anyway

[BigTime]

Man up and decline the cut. They'll probably keep you on at the same rate, tell you not to tell anyone and can you along with the sheep who took the cut when it suits them.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Rubbish - I am still getting a steady 5-7 specs a week for decent roles at good rates.

Barcap was my last permie; its a feisty bank with a high turnover but we played hard too

Good for some I guess.....

CUK seems to favour my opinion:

http://www.contractoruk.com/news/001..._february.html

[mos]

Apart from the rate cut it was a great place to work so I would hardly say they treat their contractors like tulip.

Down my hatch the kinda folks they treated half decent apart from Indian/Chinese were oldies (10 years to retirement tops). Contract life expectancy of English folks in their 30s was only 5 months.

If your name ends with ski prepare to be treated as perpetual unskilled temp thou.

[Dallas]

It does seem awfully quiet for the time of year actually.... I thought it was just me but it appears to be affecting a lot of others. It should pick up in April/May, at least I hope it does! My 4 week extension at least gives me some time to see how things go.

Rubbish - I am still getting a steady 5-7 specs a week for decent roles at good rates.

Barcap was my last permie; its a feisty bank with a high turnover but we played hard too

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Never worked for them, but is their rate higher than other banks because of this tuliptyness?

Don't contractors automatically make the calculation when they hear Barclays "so that'll be 10% for the predicted rate cut + x% for being treated like s**t?"

It's not quite that bad.... Well not at radders anyway. Barclays effectively bought my house for me (deposit + mortage payments until Dec 2013) through 28 months of contracts. So I kind of aught to be grateful to them a bit at least.....