Anyone heard of 'Contractor free' weeks before??

A

agencydude

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Hi
I work as a contractor in a big Multinational IT firm in dublin.
I have a signed work contract schedule with a separate outsourcing company which got me the position in the big multinational.

Basically it says I work in the mutinational for 3 months , I work 39 hrs per week and get paid a specific amount of money for that work.
This type of contract is renewed every 3 months .

Recently the big Mutinational have decided that they want a 'world wide contractor free' week later this month. That means they don't want any contractors working for 1 week.
The reason for this is that they want to tidy up their accounts for the current fiscal year ie make their accounts look good.

Now the outsourcing firm have come back to me and said they are not going to pay me for that week even though I'm available for work.
This is a clear breach of the contract I have with them!
So any ideas on what I should do now?
I'm down a weeks salary so is it worth hiring a solicitor to chase after the outsourcing company for a weeks salary?
There are twelve other contractors in the same position as me at the moment and we're not sure what to do. Any ideas?
 
I'm wondering if the reason for the gap week is to avoid creating employee rights for contractors?

Does the 1 week gap come at the end of your 3-month contract, or in the middle? If in the middle, are they extending your end date by 1 week?
 
Hi Rainday,

Thanks for your reply.
To answer your question the answer is no. We're definitely sure the multinational company needs to have its end of year financial accounts in order and looking good in six weeks time and thats why they're requesting to the outsourcing companys that we don't work for one week. It affects about 2700 contractors worldwide of which about 20 are based in Dublin.
There are a number of outsourcing companies involved and we all reckon they're not going to comply with their own contractual obligations to us contractors. Yesterday twelve contractors including myself were called in one by one and told we're not going to be paid for one week even if we are available for work .
 
RainyDay said:
I'm wondering if the reason for the gap week is to avoid creating employee rights for contractors?
Click to expand...

that wouldn't work anyway...the Unfair Dismissals act is quite clear on this point.
 
Hi AD,

Who is your contract with? (The agency or the multinational) and what are the terms of the contract?

aj
 
Hi ajapale,
thanks for your reply.
I don't have a contract with the big multinational.
My contract is with the outsourcing company . I was reading through the small print of this contract last night and I found a clause in it which stated :" the outsourcing company reserve the right to vary the contract schedule at its absolute discretion"
And basically thats what they've done. So its seems they haven't broken the terms of their contract. I thought they had when I initiated this post.
So I've come to the conclusion thats there is nothing much I can do about this.

Any way thanks for your help and assistance guys.
 
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