AIBU to feel annoyed my 8-hour role is becoming 21 hours for only £2pw more?

Take the job if you can manage for at least 2 years. Pensions, paid hols and sick pay

it is a freelance/self employed role and conforms to the relevant legal and tax situation as such.
Do you work for anyone else or just this company? Do you set your own work and decide how to do it? Is there any variation on the hours that you work or the days you work on?

I might be tempted to check if your current role meets the definition of a worker and whether you have employment rights as a result.

IANAL but would want to get advice from the Acas helpline. In some cases an individual can be treated as an employee and indeed acquire those rights. Would call Acas and seek their views.

I think it’s unfair to say the company will get a lot of ‘chancers’ applying for the role. As previous posters have mentioned, this could be a good opportunity for someone entering the workplace or maybe a parent wanting a part time role. TBH you’ve had a good run of working on this basis. You say the company are being greedy which is a bit ironic when you’re happy to be paid enough for 8 hours work a week to live on. The company will have loads of additional costs for employees - NI, pension payments, sick pay…

Probably the best way to reframe it is not that you’re being treated badly but that you’ve been fortunate to be paid handsomely for the job for quite a while.

You'll now get paid holiday entitlement, statutory sick pay, workplace pension, potentially building up redundancy/notice rights for the long term, etc. All those you didn't previously get.

It's not just employers NIC that the employer has to pay on employees, it's all the above too!.

You've had a good run for the length of time you've been "self employed" as a contractor on very high pay!

YANBU to be upset, but you’ve been incredibly lucky to have contract work forthat length of time. I’m a well-paid contractor and I’m aware that I command a high salary for 6 hrs a week because it’s totally uncertain whether my role is there from month to month. Common sense regarding the insecurity of contract work would tell most to save for when the work isn’t there. The company are being sensible making it a permanent role. Goodness knows why they did it as contract for 25 years. Their CFO must be nuts!

Sorry OP, I can see it hugely sucks for you. But I don’t think it’s unfair on the part of the company. If they can employ someone to do more work, for the same cost, then it sounds like they have been overspending on you… it’s been a contractual nobody has really scrutinized and has been paying way above market rate for. It sounds more like you were super lucky for however long you had it, rather than that the company is doing anything unfair?

im sorry it’s happening to you though.

Sounds like the employer has realised s/he has been paying way over the odds for years.
I was in a similar situation, it was good while it lasted.

As a contractor you are vulnerable to just losing the contract or it coming to an end. The insecurity puts a lot of people off being a contractor even though the pay is often so much higher.
It's time to look for another contract if this one is ending and they're looking to permanently employ people instead

They are not, it doesn't help the Op to have a victim mindset. It's very unfortunate for her and we wish her luck.

There will at least be better job security for someone else, now it's PAYE, and 21 hours is likely to suit a mum struggling to work around children.Ops loss is likelyto be someone else gain.

Can you get a look at their absence policy & any policies relating to disability? Most employers allow unpaid time off for appointments as a reasonable disability adjustment but some may offer paid time off - worth checking if that is the case.

Are they aware of your disability and medical appointments already? If so it may be worth a frank chat with the hiring manager about whether they are going to expect 21 hours to the minute every week or whether the focus will be on delivery; there may be some flexibility there if you have a longstanding relationship and a lot to offer in terms of skills and experience, especially around time needed for medical appointments.

Agree its a bit of a shit situation though! Honestly the job market is pretty shocking; a job I did 15 years ago has recently been advertised and the starting salary is only £3k more than I started on.

This was going to be my question...potentially someone has reviewed the role and decided it isn't compliant. They may have also looked at the rates in the market and realised they have been overpaying.

If you have a good relationship with the manager could you ask for possibilities of other contractor roles? However 8 hours a week that provides you with enough to live on does sound like it's a dream position.

It sounds as if you need to accept that your role there is coming to an end. Fair enough to be disappointed but that is the nature of being self employed. However the fact that you are unable to apply for the 21 hour post, at whatever wage, is not their fault.

As a self employed person, by the time you take off Tax, NI, put some aside to cover for your own holiday and sick pay, pay your private pension, business insurance, materials, travel etc are you really that much worse off?

“Accept the lower wage”

Well yes, it’s the wage for an employment contract.

Employers pay inflated rates / over the odds for contractors so that they can take them on and lose them as suits.

But if this role has been constant for 25 years I am amazed they haven’t made it permanent before now.

I completely get your frustration and how it has hit you, and it’s really tough, but you have enjoyed inflated contractor rates for seemingly a long time and it was always risky to assume that a contracting role would see you through to retirement.

Good luck OP, I hope your experience will stand you in good stead whichever way you turn

Wow! Great assumption there that a younger graduate is going to be shit while a 50 year old who clearly wants to only work 8 hours a week is single handedly holding the business up….

there is no ‘hard ball’ to be played. The OP had an 8 hours a week job as a contractor. The business now no longer wants that and can employ someone to do nearly 3 times as much time for them at a more reasonable rate.

if the OP is so invaluable, she will easily pick up similar work for another business and presumably save them from going under! If she doesn’t, then maybe she’s answering her own question as to why the current firm are rethinking their approach

I'd simply look for a new job- they are taking the mick.

Nice bit of agism there.

Unfortunately for the OP unless it is a very specialist area and/or requires a lot of experience and expertise, which it doesn’t sound like it is, there’s nothing to play “hard ball” for and OP has no upper hand.

OP you could apply and submit a flexible working request for part time hours, is there anyone else currently also doing the work for a couple of hours a week that would also like the permanent role for less hours? You could suggest a job share.

If be gutted too, but it makes economic sense for them to do this. They should have done it years ago.

You’ve been lucky so far, but I don’t blame you for feeling upset now. You can’t make a fuss about it though.

8 hours of an contractor or save money and get 21 hours of an employee more cheaply....
This is about the ridiculous money some organisations were spending on contractors not about old Vs young.

I got a big promotion when I pointed out they could get rid of a costly contractor and pay me to do the job on a salaried basis for much less. It was a vast cost saving for a public sector organisation

Businesses who don't know that a 50 year old woman with arthritic hips and low mobility but a sharp mind and a wealth of experience is 10 times more valuable, more competent, more accurate and more effective than either a new grad or an AI bot (both of which are best suited to making up shit that sounds plausible but is totally wrong in practice) deserve to fail, and will. If the business OP has been contracting for wants to choose that path they are free to do so. I've seen a lot of businesses fold a few years after the battleaxe who actually knows what's going on takes her retirement. Of course I have no idea whether OP's work is as valuable to the company as all that but it is more dignified to value yourself, walk away, and let them find out what a new graduate does, than accept such a massive cut in remuneration

Have they been forced to review the role due to the new rules around contracting? I don't know the ins & outs, but I know I have to move to PAYE next month. This government needs our money more than we do apparently. I've started applying for jobs abroad. Unfortunately, I can't find a country whose tax payers will completely fund all of my needs.

As I said previously, IR35, A statement of work would’ve been put together at the beginning of the contract to make this a specific deliverable outcome and wouldn’t it has been specifically delivered and achieved as an outcome. The OP would’ve been made redundant if she was an actual contractor as opposed to just a temp employee which would trigger numerous rights after a certain period of time.
she hasn’t said which she is.

"Play hardball"???
There are one million unemployed graduates, AI is coming for millions of jobs and OP is disabled.

I would recommend she apply for it if only not to regret doing so afterwards even if the job goes to someone else.

She also needs to start looking for alternative contract jobs to see if she can land one with better conditions.
That's easier when you're still working.