Major Bank Cheated Contractor
A major bank cheated a contractor. Here is his story.
I secured a 6 month contract to perform a major upgrade project for a small investment bank. I was told by the perm project manager who hired me that if I did some unpaid overtime for 4 months to ensure the project ran smoothly and finished ahead of schedule then I would either get another 6 months extension at the end or get offered a perm role instead.
Like a fool I believed this as why would they lie! It was verbal only.
They would not put anything in writing so I gave up my entire summer/autumn social life to concentrate on this project. I worked at least 3 months solid, weekends too, without pay. This was very tiring as after a while it catches up on you. You get very run down and your health suffers a lot.
Ensure Project a Success
So I made a lot of personal sacrifices to ensure the project was a success (it was). That’s because they dangled the carrot of a lucrative contract extension, or, if they could not get the funding for that, I would get a perm job offer. I did not really want it to be honest.
The Project finished on time. Upper management are very happy. The perms get a nice bonus. A few days later I then sense something is not right as the Project Manager has suddenly become hard to communicate with. He was always busy in meetings or he gives evasive answers.
It becomes obvious to me what is going to happen when they tell me I have to cover the perm staff for the Xmas holiday period on my own.
That was one of the worse times of my entire contracting life. I knew what was coming but still had bills to pay so had to stay. January is one of the worse times to get a new contract. I felt so betrayed by the deceitful behaviour of the project manager of the major bank.
Contract Extension
When he returns from a 3 week Xmas break in mid January I finally manage to pin him down. I confront about what is going on with my contract extension or perm job offer.
They told me, quite rudely, that they want me to leave when my current contract ends in 2 months. The major bank internally transferred someone with no IT experience to the role they promised me!
They also mention if I had not asked then they would only have told me when it was their legal duty to enforce the notice period on the contract. That was one week by either side.
You get zero loyalty from the client. Even my own agency was surprised and annoyed about this. They tried to negotiate a payoff for all the overtime they hadn’t paid me which I did under false pretences. They knew they could get no more work from this bank.
Refused to Pay
The bank refused to pay anything as they claimed it was obvious I was happy to work all those months for free to keep the contract! I fell ill around this time so needed a week off as I was bed ridden. The manager told me not to return otherwise they would ensure I had a hard time to the end of the contract.
I blew a fuse then and told my agency I would be taking legal action over this as I felt the bank exploited me. They had no intention of ever paying me. I had all my signed time sheets which included the unpaid weekend work. That’s because the client insisted I put it down and the exact hours despite it being unpaid work.
The agency told the bank I would be hiring a lawyer to challenge this and the agency even admitted it was bad the way I had been treated by the bank. The bank then offered me a paltry 20% of the overtime for weekend work. So I accepted rather than spend money on a legal challenge.
For more advice on dealing with clients click on Clients.
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