Contract Delay by Agency
This article, about his contract delay, was sent to us by Denis.
I passed my interview about a week ago and am due to start this Monday.
I keep chasing the agency for my contract and they keep saying it is not ready yet.
Now they are saying it may not be ready by the time I start work on Monday.
How long does it take to knock up a contract?
They must have a standard one surely.
Isn‘t it usually agency who are chasing contractors to sign the contracts as soon as they can get them to?
Gerry McLaughlin’s Reply
You are absolutely correct.
It is usually agencies who chase contractors to sign contracts. They even lie to them by saying the client needs to have it signed by the end of the day. The agency may even courier it over such is their haste to ‘close the deal‘.
That is unless there is a clause in the contract that they don‘t want you to see until you have actually started work and can‘t pull out so easily.
There is a possibility of it just being somebody being slack – but slack agents don‘t last long.
It is far more likely to be the scenario that I stated and that they are hiding something from you.
Length of Contract You Have Agreed
My best guess, from experience, is that the length of contract that they have agreed with the client is different from the length of contract they have agreed with you.
I‘ve seen it in the past where contractor have been signed up for say 6 months and then find themselves got rid of after 6 weeks with the client saying that this was always the length of contract agreed with the agency.
It could be that there is no notice period for you but one for the client and agency.
Talk to the Agency immediately
There are a number of things it could be but this is a huge red flag as far as you are concerned.
What you must do is get onto the agency immediately and tell them that you won‘t be starting work on the Monday without a contract and will call the client to explain why.
Say that you have already started searching for another contract.
This should get their attention and push it to the top of their priorities.
So, you should expect a contract to be whizzing its way to you very shortly.
And if it doesn‘t then that really is a red flag and you‘d be better off going elsewhere.
Call the Client
If the contract doesn‘t come by late Friday then it might be an idea to call the client and tell them that you‘d love to start on the Monday but you have no contract.
The client will then contact the agency to ask why, which should set the agency in motion.
However, if the agency still refuses to send you a contract after all this then I would reckon that you would be free to go to the client direct and they would understand why.
When agencies play these games there is always a reason.
Don’t put up wuth any contract delay from the agency.
