Any recourse for a shorted work contract?

December 11, 2009 8:18 AM

I'm a contractor. In October my contract was extended per an email from my recruiter, to Jan 31, 2010.

This was a bit of relief since X-mas is always a tight money situation. Yesterday I got a call from my recruiter telling me they "revised" the contract and it will end on December 30, 2009. This puts me in somewhat of a bind. Am I fucked in terms of recourse?

posted by KevinSkomsvold to Work & Money (5 answers total)

Go take a look at the contract--what are the terms regarding contract termination? (Mine says it can be ended by either party for any reason with two weeks notice, which I believe is pretty standard.)
posted by phoenixy at 8:25 AM on December 11, 2009

I'm not a lawyer or a contractor, but it seems to me that if you have a "contract" you have a legally binding agreement between two parties that you would have a copy of. If you're working for some agency and are more of a temp then maybe you're out of luck.
posted by ghharr at 8:26 AM on December 11, 2009

Response by poster: I'll have a look @ the contract if I can find it, phoenixy. I've been here over a year so I'll need to dig.

ghharr - I agree.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 8:35 AM on December 11, 2009

Go take a look at the contract--what are the terms regarding contract termination? (Mine says it can be ended by either party for any reason with two weeks notice, which I believe is pretty standard.)

This has been my experience as well, on pretty much every contract job I've ever been on. Last year I was on a year-long contract that was terminated by the employer after six months because they ran out of work for me to do.
posted by anderjen at 10:24 AM on December 11, 2009

The exact same thing just happened to me last month. At least I had a little more notice; 3 weeks (and right before Xmas) is rough! I understand that it's budget-related which typically starts in January but letting people go during the holidays is still lame. Initially my company screwed around because they didn't want me to leave before my contract ended. I finally told my recruiter she had 2 weeks to find me something else and then I'll take matters into my own hands.

I wouldn't waste too much time fighting and just start looking for something else pronto. I would think you only have another week or so before hiring drastically slows until the new year.
posted by bda1972 at 9:17 PM on December 12, 2009