Q. I have a 2 weeks remaining on a contract and now my vendor is refusing to authorise my time sheets as she says I should of been only doing one day a week and not 5. Although I have a contract stating 5 days a week and my agency says if they’ don’t receive a authorised time sheet then I won’t get paid. Is this legal? What can I do?
A. The first point to consider is whether there is a binding contract in the first place.
A contract is an agreement between two parties establishing an enforceable arrangement to fulfil an obligation in this case carrying out work for a sum of money. A contract is formed when all of the essential ingredients are satisfied. There must be an offer from, acceptance of that offer, and consideration from each of the parties which means that they are reciprocally putting something into the contract and equally benefiting from mutual performance. Finally, there must be intent to create legal relations from both parties. If all the elements have been satisfied, it is clear that a contract has been formed. From the facts given it would appear there is a contract in place.
When both you and the agency signed the contract, you were both agreeing to the terms set out in the contract. Even if the contract is not signed, by carrying out the work and receiving payment an agreement is in place, which cannot be varied without both parties agreeing.
Within the contract the clause stipulates the number of hours to be undertaken. In this scenario it is 5.
Conclusion
From the information, as it appears you have fulfilled your contractual obligation to carry out the work required, namely 5 days a week as stated in the contract, this demonstrates that a legally binding contract is in force and therefore the agency is required to pay you.
If they do not pay you as a result of this, this would amount to a breach of contract for they are not fulfilling their obligation of the contract which is to pay you in return for the work you have provided. Your next step would be to take legal action to recover any unpaid fees.
Always take care when entering into a contract and read the “small print”.
‘Should have’ not ‘Should of’
But surely the issue here is that without a timesheet signed by the end client the agency will assert that there is no proof that you actually have provided the work as contracted.
People who work at agencies are often totally clueless regarding contract law. You can explain to them that they are simply breaking your contract with them and if they don’t pay your invoice, you will just take them to court to get your money back. It has nothing to do with the end client as your contract is with the agency.
To set your mind at ease, you should be able to find an employment contract lawyer to look at the case over the phone / email and give you a quick opinion (they often do this for free).
When I had a similar problem, the opinion I got was that I had a clear cut case to get financial compensation for loss of earnings due to them breaking the contract, but that it would have taken about £1000 to pursue (they would have put a junior lawyer on the case for a few hours).
Then it’s up to you. It might be emotionally worth it if even if not financially, as winning a case will probably make you feel better about it, and make the agency look bad. Or you might want to do it yourself, which will obviously be cheaper but much more stressful and time consuming than letting an expert handle it all.
If you decide not to pursue it for the time being though, don’t let the agency off the hook, send them a full invoice expect it to be paid, insist that you reserve the right to take them to court if they don’t pay.
The ball is in your court, you can choose what to do next (even if that’s not to take it further) because it sounds like you are completely in the right. Good luck with it!
I have heard of this sort of thing before. Client refuses to sign the last week’s timesheet and the agent wont pay up.
Then the agent gets in touch with contractor to say that the client wont pay the agent for the last month’s work even though the agent has paid the contractor. Agent goes back to the contractor to get him to get the last months timesheets resubmitted and signed. Contractor tells agent to politely …. off.
I presume we are only talking about payment for work actually carried out. Where no services were provided or required, I’d expect that no payment is due regardless of how many days per week is stated in the terms – most contracts have an ‘no mutuality of obligation’ clause.
IHMO – absence of a timesheet per se does not preclude you from claiming payment. You can always seek a court order directing the vendor/agency either to sign the timesheet and pay, or pay without a timesheet as long as it could be proved that you have worked (or reported for work). Generally the client/agency is required to give notice before termination of contract, or equivalent pay in lieu of notice. Check if there is a notice period in your contract. You will need to check if the vendor/client is within rights to suddenly ask you work 1 day/week rather than 5 days. There may also be a clause that the agency will pay only if the vendor/client pays them but this does not mean they can wash their hands off so easily.
What GN said … ‘Should have’ not ‘Should of’
This happened to me. It was horrible. The client closed down the Purchase Order too early to pay my last week’s salary and the agency refused to pay me. I looked into it and I knew it was illegal to refuse to pay me. I told the agency that and they didn’t give a monkey’s. It took weeks of repeated pestering to get the money out of them. Utterly miserable experience!