What is a ‘contract for services’
Like many recruitment consultancies, Michael Page engages temporary workers on what is called a ‘contract for services’. But what does this mean for you?
The ‘contract for services’ is not an employment contract and there is no intention to create an employment relationship between either you and your recruitment consultant or you and the client to which you are assigned. In other words, even though you are a worker and entitled to fair and lawful treatment throughout the temporary assignment, the relationship between you, the recruitment consultant and the client organisation to which you are providing your services remains a flexible one.
Typically a contract for services will include provisions that state it is not an employment contract and that no contract exists when you are not being supplied by to a client. Furthermore the contract will state that when you are being supplied on assignment, the assignment can be terminated either by you, by the recruitment consultant or by the client organisation at any time and for any reason, without notice.
In the ordinary course of events you will have knowledge of how long an assignment is expected to last or when it is expected to end but the arrangement is specifically designed so that if events require an assignment to end, it is not prolonged for any other reason.
While you are on assignment, you should expect your recruitment consultant to deal with all the administrative elements of your working arrangement. They should:
- pay you at the agreed rate;
- be transparent with your statutory paid holiday entitlement;
- be transparent with any social security payment you qualify for;
- be the contact point for any arrangement relating to your temporary work e.g.: if you are unable to attend for any reason or you or the client wish to terminate the assignment for whatever reason;
- be the contact point for any complaint or concerns relating to the assignment from either you or the client.
The client to which you are assigned will control the work you do and generally you will work to their instructions. The client does not, however, have control over any of the administrative arrangements relating to your work and you should ensure that issues such as your pay rate, paid holiday entitlement and concerns about the quality of your work or the conduct of any of your work colleagues are all directed back to your recruitment consultant.
Temporary assignments can sometimes last a considerable amount of time but that does not mean the nature of the relationships established at the outset will change. Time, of itself, does not give rise to an employment relationship. Established case law establishes that the facts of a particular relationship are of paramount importance. Provided the reality is that the administrative and working arrangements between you, your recruitment consultant and the client accurately reflect the contracts in place between those three parties, the Tribunals will not intervene or deem there to be a different arrangement in place to the one set out in the contracts. In other words, if the facts point to you being a temporary worker engaged under a contract for services and supplied to a hiring client in the way set down in the contracts between all the parties, the courts will accept that as the arrangement in place.
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