Know Your Contract

Though temporary workers may be recruited directly by a company – and are therefore answerable to the specific organisation and no one else – most are recruited via an agency. When taking on temporary employment in this fashion, it is important to understand the contract you are agreeing to upon signing. Vital statistics include length of contract, salary, holiday admissions, bonuses, benefits and crucially, whether or not there is an option installed into the contract stating that an employer might hold the right to terminate without any notice period or valid reason, i.e. the employee breaking the rules stated in their contract and/or abusing their company’s code of conduct, therefore causing a breach of contract and relinquishing any rights of employment. Consequently, it is important to you as a potential employee that you know what is expected of you and what you can expect from both the agency offering the terms of employment, and the company you will be working for.

In some cases, an employer will offer their temporary employee a permanent contract. Following such occasions, the terms of any original contract and all liability shifts completely from the recruitment agency initially responsible for the contact between company and employee – and who had previously been formally considered as said worker’s employer – to the company offering the position and a new contract. At this point, all agreed temporary worker bonuses and aids between themselves and their recruitment agency will be terminated (unless it is stated otherwise) and everything about the terms of employment is open to negotiation and change for any new terms, including added incentives that may not have been available to a temporary worker that had been to all staff in a permanent position.