Name your worst IT agency fuck up

[Guest]

I have been working for the last 3 weeks and have not been paid yet, the agency lied to me about the rate and i am tied to them now because i was stupid enough to sign the contract with no rate mentioned.

I am mad as hell. There must be other IT contractors out there that have nitemare stories about retarded agents?

Brooky



:mgwhore2:

 

[Tom]

Ahem, but the mention of no rate surely weighs in your favour? Are you an employee, or a contractor? If the latter, then they are purchasing your time/skills/equipment, and you determine the rate.

 

[Guest]

i am a contractor (umbrella company not limited). the problem is, in the contract it says that the agency can determine the rate and agree with me verbally. I did not agree but they are forcing me to work because i am bound by the other parts of the contract. (eg, i cant leave until the contract is over unless im insolvant or dead).

So they have me by the short and curlies.

 

[Furr]

Can they really force someone to work! isn't that forced labour?

 

[Guest]

force in a contractual way i meant, if i walk away then they sue me for breach of contract and ring round every other agency they know so i cant work in the industry again, and believe me it happens.

 

[dysfunction]

A contract can always be broken....its just the consequences afterwards that you have to deal with

Part of the contract surely states that they have to pay you. If they are not paying you then they are breaching that contract!

 

[Lester]

If there's an unreasonable delay in paying you I imagine a letter giving notice that you will leave if you don't get paid within x time will do the trick.

 

[Guest]

they are going to pay me, but i was supposed to get paid after 2 weeks and they now say they are only doing a 4 weekly invoice payment.

so im fucked for another week and a half.

note to self, read the small print more.

 

[dysfunction]

Originally posted by brooky
they are going to pay me, but i was supposed to get paid after 2 weeks and they now say they are only doing a 4 weekly invoice payment.

so im fucked for another week and a half.

note to self, read the small print more.

And negotiate a rate before signing anything!!

 

[Guest]

i did negociate a rate but they said that was only verbal, and now its changed, i know ive been screwed but theres fuck all i can do, its only £1 an hour different but its the principle.

 

[dysfunction]

I meant have the rate confirmed in writing cos a verbal agreement is not worth the paper its written on

 

[doh_boy]

brooky name and shame. I'm 2 months away from finishing uni and since I missed the grad-schemes this year I figured it might be a good idea to apply for nexy years. This means I'll need a job for a year and contracting/agency seems to be the best solution

anyway tell me who these are so I can avoid them like the plague.

 

[Guest]

tbh, id rather not.

1. because they will prolly find out
2. because game.net are held responcible for the content of my potential slur.
3. im too scared, they might send the boys round.

tbh, i should have used a bit more common sense but i will put it down to experience.


basically dont trust anybody.

 

[old.D0LLySh33p]

You could just send doh_boy an e-mail

 

[Tom]

There are several points which may be of interest to you, and may work in your favour:

Does your contract give you the right to sub-contract work?

How is the rate determined?

What allowances are there for overtime and other benefits?

These are questions which your local tax office would be very interested in. It's worth making sure that you are not going to be liable to pay extra tax, and worth pointing out to the agency that you work for that, should they (IR) decide you are more of an employee of the agency - rather than a freelancer - the agency will be liable to make PAYE contributions on your behalf, and NI, and give you all the rights and priviliges that employees are entitled to.

Clear up your situation with your local tax office (they all seem to work slightly differently when it comes to determining a persons tax status), it was bloody hard but eventually I got my Schedule D letter, now nobody can take NI off my invoices.

BTW Im not in IT, but am a freelance tv cameraman, so I know where ur coming from.

 

[Guest]

i am working for an umbrella company so the agency pay them and then the umbrella company pay me.

i have now got a fax copy of the new contract with my rate on it.

i am hopefully being extended so i can up my rate, if not im off. So this situation is only for a month.

 

[xane]

I doubt they can sue you for breach of contract, IIRC every contract has to have "get out" conditions for either side clearly defined.

No-one can force you to work, and that includes the threat of sue, they can however withhold payments and you'll have to sue to get it back, assuming the contract is in your favour.

My advice is to forget them all, throw a few sickies and doss around, enjoy yourself.

 

[*Exor*]

I once had an IT agency send my CV to the company I already worked for (on a permanent basis). Needless to say I had personel on the phone to me asking what was going on.

 

[Tom]

Just make sure you check your tax status, or you might get bitten hard in a few years.

 

[Furr]

ONLY £1 AN HOUR!!!! I would get mad if that was the case. that extra pound adds up to alot over the course of a month

 

[nath]

Originally posted by *Exor*
I once had an IT agency send my CV to the company I already worked for (on a permanent basis). Needless to say I had personel on the phone to me asking what was going on.

lol "oops"

What did you say?

 

[Scouse]

It amazes me that in this time of IT wages being the equivalent of a fucking shelf stacker in Sainsbury's people are still looking to contract (never mind go permie) in IT.

The only reason that I'm still in at a reasonable rate is NEPOTISM.

Otherwise I'd have quit IT ages ago - PEOPLE - WORKING IN COMPUTERS IS NO LONGER A CASH COW.



Brooky - you need to wize up quick - it's a ridiculous state of affairs you've got yourself into. Pop over to http://www.contractoruk.co.uk and get yourself flamed for being a numpty. Then read some of the articles.....

 

[*Exor*]

Well I'm contracting at the moment and earning about a grand a week. I don't think that's shelf stacker wages.

 

[nath]

Programming money > Engineer Money.

It's brains vs manual labour really. Quite right too if you ask me, my job is piss easy tbh. Takes no real intelligence, just a bit of knowledge which only takes some experience to aquire.

 

[Mellow-]

Originally posted by brooky
... and i am tied to them now because i was stupid enough to sign the contract with no rate mentioned.

What did you expect? A reward for being thick?

 

[Scouse]

Well I'm contracting at the moment and earning about a grand a week. I don't think that's shelf stacker wages.

Aye. But as you're a contractor you'll be aware that there are fuckloads of people on the shelf at the moment and that it's hardly a "sellers market"....

I've seen AD Domain design jobs going for £7/hour in the City and C++ code-monkeys going for the same.




And nath, I take objection to programming being tougher than the "engineering" side of things. Proper domain and network design/administration is at least as challenging mentally as programming (I've done both) - but I presume you're just talking about 2nd line monkeys......