'I've been working under a contract due to run until April. I heard from the client last week that I'd only be required for another 2 weeks. I've heard nothing from the agency - they don't seem to be able to talk to the Client. And I've a holiday booked during what would be the period of notice, which I would not have booked if I had known the contract was going to end early.'
I've read your contract. It is of course the agency, and not the Client, which contracted with your company.
Questions often arise as to whether notice from the Client should be treated as if it were notice from the agency - in other words, where a Contractor is engaged by an agency for a specific Client, named in the contract, and the Client tells the Contractor that (s)he won't be required after a certain date, does the agency also have to give notice - and what difference does it make if the agency doesn't do so?
Generally, the answer is that it is for the agency to give notice, and if a day comes when the Contractor is no longer by the Client to work - or even onto the Client's site - then from that point, the agency will be in breach of contract.
Here, that position is reinforced by the fact that the contract contains a term expressly making clear that contractual matters are to be dealt with between Contractor and Agency, and not with the Client. A question mark (maybe a large one, but still a question mark) has been raised by the Client over whether you will be required after a certain date - but you have asked the agency for clarification, and a week later have still had no response. What more than that, one might wonder, could you possibly have done?
Under the terms of your contract you are entitled to 4 weeks' notice in writing if the agency wishes to terminate the contract prematurely. That I think quite clearly means what it says, no more, no less. You have not yet had that 4 week's written notice, and the notice period will not start to run until you have.
There are therefore two possibilities - either the agency will give you written notice before the client no longer requires you, or it won't.
What difference does it make that you have a week's holiday booked? From what I've said so far, the answer to this should become clearer. Your entitlement to damages is to put you in the position in which you would have been, had the contract not been broken. 4 weeks notice means 4 calendar weeks - whether or not bank holidays or your own vacation fall within that period. If the contract hadn't been broken, you would have worked and been paid for three of those weeks, and had the fourth off unpaid. So that is the position in which you are entitled to be placed - effectively, to be paid three weeks in lieu.
I can understand you saying that you would not have booked the holiday if you had known this was going to happen. However, I'm afraid that is the luck of the draw, and the bottom line is that a contract terminable on 4 weeks notice should not be regarded as offering security for more than 4 weeks.
22nd January 1999
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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