To feel a bit miffed that I've lost my job through no fault of my own?

[Movinghouseatlast]

I'm self employed in the professional services industry. I had been contracted through another company(a) to provide a service to a client (b) until the end of March next year. I invoice company a who invoice client b for my services. As such I am self employed and have no employment rights or contract. I accept this, have worked in this way for over 20 years and have never had a problem with it.

So the client has pulled the contract due to poor performance of 2 of my colleagues. A director observed them.at work and had a whole list of complaints about them. I wasn't in that day. The next day we are told, with just a weeks notice that that is it, we all are dismissed because the client is severing the contract.

Although I'm self employed, I had been put under a lot of pressure to commit until March next year by company a. I had booked hotels and train tickets in advance, pressured to save money for the client.

I'm in shock really as I have had my income just cut off as of next week.

I actually don't believe the complaints about my colleagues who are consummate professionals. It seems like an excuse. All our service level agreements have been exceeded for example. They have severed the contract on the grounds that the my 2 colleagues were shit at their jobs and made sexist remarks- so they have been able to do it without notice.

I will have no income now. I just wonder whether the director who made the decision should have considered this before making making 9 people unemployed through absolutely no fault of their own?

If the company asked you to pre book the hotels and travel I think you would be quite entitled to ask them to reimburse you. I'm not sure you can make them though.

Unfortunately although self employment gives you the flexibility to work for who you want to it does also mean you don't have paid notice and other employee benefits. I'm assuming there was no written contract stating notice periods or anything like that.

I do meet the requirements of self employment, I really do. I'm a consultant so I get paid a daily rate to work with a particular client. This one happened to be 3 days a week for the same client for a year. That doesn't mean I'm not self employed.

I had committed to it, which was annoying me as I should not be asked to do that as a self employed person. But I imagine that if I had insisted on that then I wouldn't have been used.

I have just moved house so all my savings have gone on that recently!

noto
Not sure you’ve got that right

I would be angry at your colleagues.

It's more likely they did do something wrong, than the company has cancelled for no reason.

Unfortunately, that is the price you pay for receiving a higher day rate and paying a lower rate of tax by taking your earnings as dividends rather than as salary.

Presumably the company who paid you will reimburse any travel costs you incurred in advance that are non-refundable?

Good luck in finding a new role soon.

If you are a consultant then you invoice them for your expenses and for termination of contract.

I don't take earnings as dividends. I fill in a self assessment tax return.

See? People think the self employed have it easy!

Isn’t your contract with employer A? I think I’d ask my lawyer if there was anything I could do.

You are right to feel pissed off at your colleagues and for what it's worth, I understand the type of self-employed contractor that you are.

I enjoyed four years of working like this in my previous career. I never ever felt vulnerable or thought it was risky working for one client. I used to work on multiple projects for the same client and there was plenty of work.

I'm sure you won't rest on your laurels for too long and you'll be updating LinkedIn and reaching out to your network asap for new opportunities. Good luck

You should have a contract with the company that is paying you. That will have termination clauses. So even if they lose a client you could have issued a contract that said you were contracted to them until XXX

ie are you still under contract to them? The client cancelling is a bit of a red herring as you are not contracted to that client directly.

My husband and I are both self employed - totally different areas of work. We have colleagues. Of course we do. We don’t work in a vacuum. I have many different clients; but he works as you do. He has been in a similar position. It is absolute shit and I hugely sympathise. There are some people on here who seem unable to understand some pretty basic concepts. You are entirely reasonable to feel as you do. I hope things pick up soon.

many permies do resent contract staff on what they feel are on inflated day rates

Really? Why would you do that? You know they don't get pensions/other benefits or security? It would never occur to me to be envious of contractors?

@leghairdontcare
Completely agree- the language that differentiates between self employed and not is vital. HMRC are so hot on this, I hope op has a decent accountant/tax advisor to back up her position

We seeing this a lot because of changes in tax law and long term contractors vs employees.

I know it’s rubbish but equally your day rate is significantly more than in-house employee-there is always a risk vs reward element here

There's nothing stopping you invoicing the company for the cost of the rebooked travel and hotels. And then considering the small claims court if they don't pay up.

Is there anything in your contract with this company (or your normal business T&Cs) that would allow you to claim for what you have already paid out? I would definitely try and get some legal advice around that. DH is self employed and has some inter related clients, his business model is also very much based on his telling clients "if you are not happy you can stop at any time". We often talk about the importance of making sure risk is spread as much as possible so I feel your pain!

I think op if the client severed the contract they had no option but to terminate, because this was the client you worked for. I'm not sure what else they could have done.

I’m sure you can cancel hotels hopefully.
Is it worth contacting ACAS.

If you manage to persuade HMRC that you were an employee because you only worked for one company, rather than a contractor, they will whack you with a tax bill backdated 20 years, for all the PAYE you owe.

Whilst it’s unfortunate that B have cancelled their contract with A, your contract is with A, not B and YOU should have made that watertight.

You’ve chosen to be a contractor, you need to take responsibility and not wail about no one being empathetic. You have no employment rights because you ever met ploy yourself - you write your own terms...do that better going forward,

Check your contract; travel for work should be something you expense if you're asled to book it. Likewise unless you personally have breached the contract there should be a cancellation period, a month is common, so you should receive a month's wages. Are you sure the company who had the contract won't want to redeploy you elsewhere, have you asked in case they have other roles?

Next, get your updated CV out to all your key recruiters today stating you'll call tomorrow to discuss what roles they have available. The recruitment market is very busy for many types of role right now, be flexible and you should pick something up. Contractors are usually asked to start within 2 weeks subject to references and checks, so you shouldn't need to wait long. If there isn't something immediate to apply for then start looking at the short project sites like Ten2Two (there are at least 15 of these kind of sites, research them if you don't know them). Next time, lesson learned that you need 6 months expenses saved at all times for contracting.

There's good things and bad things about being a contractor. This is one of the bad things, you can be let go with minimal warning. I had a contractor colleague who was let go recently due to budget pressures.

If you want certainty, then you need to find a permanent role.

Sounds like you're a contractor and your daily rate would reflect this. Part of that is the lack of security but you should know this

I'm in shock really as I have had my income just cut off as of next week.

But this is how it is when you’re self-employed (which I am). You don’t have the security of a guaranteed monthly wage. You have lean months and healthy months.

Pull out all the stops to find clients to bridge the gap.

Not sure about the hotels, but train tickets can be refunded.