agency wants to be consulting company and my company the supplier

[captainjon]

And you know how?

If they have one person doing consultancy work then they are a consultancy.

A) They said the client is forcing this contract, and b) they only seem to have 1 staff.

[vwdan]

A) They said the client is forcing this contract, and b) they only seem to have 1 staff.

How many staff do you have?

[northernladuk]

There could be a possible upside that you won't be exposed to the yearly rate cuts in the banks and furloughs/culls.

I remember at Barclays the way to get around it all was to get yourself moved on the Tech Mahindra managed service account and off Hays.

[captainjon]

How many staff do you have?

Irrelevant. Good to see so many people here sticking up for dodgy agencies and dodgy contracts.

[northernladuk]

Can we move to general. Nothing else professional in this thread.

[captainjon]

Can we move to general. Nothing else professional in this thread.

i agree

[WTFH]

What answer were you hoping to get? That you could sue someone?

[m0n1k3r]

Hi

just got a contract through, and the agency who did the arrangement want to be the consulting company hired to the end client who will use my company as a supplier to them.
Sounds pretty dodgy as a way to avoid agency regulations. Anyone else had to deal with something like this? I'm tempted to tell them to jump.

thanks

The agency regulations doesn't apply to just any intermediary. In fact, it doesn't apply to the kind of contract that most LtdCo contractors are seeking (e.g. non-IR35). From the regulations:

“work-finding services” means services (whether by the provision of information or otherwise) provided—

(a) by an agency to a person for the purpose of finding that person employment or seeking to find that person employment;

(b) by an employment business to an employee of the employment business for the purpose of finding or seeking to find another person, with a view to the employee acting for and under the control of that other person;

(c) by an employment business to a person (the “first person”) for the purpose of finding or seeking to find another person (the “second person”), with a view to the first person becoming employed by the employment business and acting for and under the control of the second person;

What makes you think they are an agency?

[cojak]

I was in this exact position and got out the moment the ‘consultancy gave me a set of business cards despite my explicit instruction not to do this.

If the consultancy wants to present you to the client as a disguised employee you are smack inside IR35 territory anyway.

Time to move on (I lasted less than 8 weeks).

[m0n1k3r]

I was in this exact position and got out the moment the ‘consultancy gave me a set of business cards despite my explicit instruction not to do this.

If the consultancy wants to present you to the client as a disguised employee you are smack inside IR35 territory anyway.

Time to move on (I lasted less than 8 weeks).

What did the business cards say? Did they include something to distinguish you from a bona fide employee, such as "Associate Consultant" or similar?

Companies such as BT use a lot of subcontractors, all working under the BT brand name for the purpose of presenting a coherent image to the customer. That does not mean they are disguised employees of BT (they are usually bona fide employees of the subcontractor, even if the subcontractor only have one employee).