Change of role - contractual sort of question - ish

[WindyAnna]

I (my umbrella) have a contract with an agency who has a contract with a consultancy who has a contract with the end client.

My contract with the agency states I cannot work direct for consultancy for 6 months - nothing about the client.

Client has a contract with the consultancy that says they won't poach staff for period of 6 months.

My role on the project is disappearing because of restructure but end client lurves me and wants me to stay on in a totally different role so not one that the consultancy would normally fill.

Consultancy & agency jointly make a massive mark-up on my daily rate. Consultancy agrue that their mark-up is because as well as me the client also gets the methodology and the back-up of the consultancy. In suggested role the consultancy can add no value

(are you following this or am I making no sense whatsoever???)

I am happy to stay and do new role, I think contractual issue is between client & consultancy. however consultancy is being sweet as pie to client and saying they are sure an agreement can be reached whilst putting stacks of pressure on me to insist I will only work through them.

There is no gain for me in staying with them and I owe them no loyalty so I have said I'll just leave. also client has indicated they have no intention of filling the role via the consultancy either with me or anyone else.

If we can't sort this the client will go to the market to fill the role which will be a git cos I would like to do it. I do think it is a client/consultancy issue like I said but is there anything else I could be doing which would mean I got the gig?

Ta

WA

[KathyWoolfe]

Your contract is with the agency and not with the consultancy. The other contracts have no relevance to you whatsoever. IMO there is nothing to stop you from working for the end-client. Your agency isn’t breaking the contract because you’re not working for the consultancy. The position of the end-client is a little shakier but seeing as you are not a direct employee of the consultancy the consultancy can hardly say that you were poached from them.
If the consultancy is putting pressure on you to say that you will only work for the client through the consultancy then (again only my opinion) they are showing how weak their own bargaining position is.
At the end of the day, I would imagine that both the client and the consultancy have batteries of lawyers to advise them on this kind of matter and I would say that if the client is willing to go ahead with employing you directly then I should go ahead.
Best of luck!

[TheFaQQer]

Sounds like this is something for the client / consultancy to resolve. You have nothing that legally stops you going to the client, since they are not the customer of your business.

Sounds like you should take the role with the client (with an increase, since there are two middlemen out of the way), and leave it to the client to sort out with consultancy, if they want to. You are under no legal obligation to work through the agency or through the consultancy.

Whether you want to consider the morality of cutting out the people that introduced the work to you, is another argument.

If I were in your position, I'd take the client role with an increase.

And get a Ltd company - surely after your experiences you should be the first one to be getting a Ltd sorted??

[XLMonkey]

Easiest option is to get the client to come to an agreement with the consultancy (along the lines of "don't be silly about this, you get plenty of business elsewhere and you don't want to jeopardise that now, do you?").

Second easiest option (oddly) is for the client to advertise the position. If they advertise, and you respond directly, then there is nothing that either the consultancy or the agent can do to stop you going direct.

(the reason for this is that the non-solicitation clause in the consultancy's contract with the client does not apply if you respond to a publicly advertised contract).

Third easiest option is to leave. Honestly. These things can get very messy very quickly if one or other party decides to play silly buggers, and generally it is the smallest party (i.e. you) that bears the pain.

[TheFaQQer]

As a coincidence, I may be in the same sort of situation soon. End client engaged two consultancies. One of these engaged an agency, who engaged my company.

Yesterday, the other consultancy rang me and said that they'd be interested in me applying for a role that they have open and can't resource.

I've said that I'm interested in it (I applied before I got this gig), but if they are going to take me on, then it's up to them to sort it out between themselves, the client, and the other consultancy. He seems fairly confident that they can sort it out with the other consultancy, and the client sees everyone as one team, so shouldn't really be an issue.

Now all I need to do is to get the role sorted.