'I gave the client one month's notice to terminate my contract. A few days later the client asked where I was going next, and when I told them they told me to leave immediately. The client now refuses to pay for the last week of the month's notice period, claiming that I had intended to leave after 3 weeks. I had simply told the agency (the same agency for both old and new contracts) that I might be able to start the new contract after 3 weeks, but only if both Clients and I all agreed.'
First point: your contract was with the agency, so any notice should have been given to the agency and not to the Client. Sure, keep the Client informed - but from a contractual point of view, contractors should remember this point, and give their notices to the agency.
What also follows from that is that whether the Client is prepared to pay or not is immaterial - your contract, and your rights (such as they may be), are against the agency and not the Client. The agency's responsibilities to you do not depend on whether or not they themselves get paid by the Client.
Your contract states:
You gave one written month's notice to the Client. You also gave oral notice to the Agency. Either way, it appears that the agency accepted the notice - thus apparently waiving its rights to require notice to be given to them in writing.
You also told the agency that whilst you would work the full month, you might be willing to leave after 3 weeks, provided you and both Clients agreed.
At this point the contract remained in force whilst the one month's notice period ran. I do not think the suggestion that you might be willing to leave earlier if all parties (including yourself) agreed is sufficiently concrete to amount to either an offer to vary the contract, or an indication of willingness to be legally bound by such a variation, subject only to acceptance. It's all too uncertain.
Before that offer had been withdrawn, and after less than a week of the notice period had passed, the Client told you to leave straightaway.
There are two ways to view this, depending on whether or not the contract gave you the right to work. But the end result is almost the same.
If the contract gave you the right to work, then refusal by the Client to allow you to work amounted to breach of contract on the part of the Agency, because at that point they were no longer fulfilling the contract. You have the right to damages for that breach of contract. The amount would have been such as to put you in the position you would have been in, had the contract been performed. Damages would therefore be payment for the whole month.
If on the other hand, your contract gave you no right to work, but simply the right to be paid, then you are entitled to payment for the month under the terms of the contract. Having read your contract, I think this is the correct interpretation - it does not give you the right to work.
Either way, you are entitled to be paid for the whole month. Whether the payment is for damages for breach of contract or for money due under the contract would only matter if you had been in the position where you could have started work elsewhere within that month, and thus mitigated your loss. If your claim was for damages for breach, you would have to bring that into account. If the claim were for monies due under the contract, then you would have no duty to mitigate.
In any event, it seems the Agency has withheld payment for the whole month, even though they appear to admit that at least three weeks are due. This is wholly unacceptable, and you would be well within your rights in sending them a short sharp '7-day' letter demanding payment, and issuing a County Court summons if they fail to comply. It's quite simple to do this. And if you issue the summons, then you will also be entitled to claim interest at 8% per annum on the outstanding sums. You will have to pay a Court fee to issue the summons, but you can also add this to the claim.
20th February 1998
I'd really appreciate your feedback on this FAQ - so mail me and tell me what you think of it, if it's been useful to you, or let me know of any specific problem you have where I may be able to help.
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