Effectively on a retainer....

[monoceros]

My contract states a few things:
- 5 days a week, 8 hours a day
- Schedule of deliverables
-- Technical services for implementation of websites using the xyz platform
-- Providing assistance to junior team members
-- Participating in customer calls and project planning.

While not part of the formal agreement I have been timesheeting my time on my clients time management system so they can bill and track.
This has all been fine until recently, now my client is no longer actively selling the product I have been looking after and their ongoing business from their existing customer base is reducing (and some of their clients have already moved on).

They still need (someone with my knowledge and skills)/me as no one else in the diminished team is able to do the work.

Question is: (and this is just to establish a negotiating position) to what extent are they bound by their own contract to keep paying me for 5 days a week even though some weeks I do only 3 days work? (My actual intention is to propose a drop to 3 days as it suits my personal circumstances at the moment, and I hate sitting in an office with nothing meaty to work on, and it may keep the contract running for longer while I retrain).

Cheers,
Mono.

[northernladuk]

Question is: (and this is just to establish a negotiating position) to what extent are they bound by their own contract to keep paying me for 5 days a week even though some weeks I do only 3 days work? (My actual intention is to propose a drop to 3 days as it suits my personal circumstances at the moment, and I hate sitting in an office with nothing meaty to work on, and it may keep the contract running for longer while I retrain).

Cheers,
Mono.

There should be a clause in your contract saying you will get paid on receipt of a signed timesheet or something like that. If the timesheet only has 3 days on it you will only get paid for those days. They are not obliged to pay you for work you have not done at all.

If they are stupid enough to sign for 5 days and you only did 3 they happy days but that is their fault, not an obligation on their part.

You get paid for the work you do, you do not get paid for doing no work.