Contracting-Any rights?

imported_Ducklet

I've work for the same company(big international computer one) for about 3 years now as a contracter.

There looks like there is no view to getting a full-time position with the company itself(I have asked and been told I joined the company at the wrong time). Does anyone know how contracters should be treated(I never signed a contract)?

Thing is all the new employees after about 2000 seem to be contracters like myself! Its quite annoying as I do the same job as my colleagues who are actual employees. I've found I do not seem to have the same rights as employees such as they have more holiday entitlement, company allows for sick days(while I can have a max of 4 before facing disciplinary matters)which means if i'm sick I drag myself into work no matter how ill i feel.

There's other matters like the annual company bonuses paid to fellow workers who are in the same team and health and pension provisions which i miss out on.

To be honest I've started looking for a new job as the career progression is pretty poor as well. If you move departments, they drop the wage to the bottom of the scale and you have to start from scratch again.

I'm not sure if i'm having a bad experience of a place which is badly run or if this is what work is like.

golly99

I did computer contracting for about 3 months to tie me over and am now working in a permie job. Prefer the relative security that a permie job brings and didn't like the uncertainty of the contracting market. If I wasn't in as I was sick or had holidays I didn't get paid, so that was also a big motivation to get a permie role! Unfortunately from what I can see, you will always have less 'perks' than permie staff, but in theory you should be compensated with a higher salary than permie staff (not always though!). I think contracting is either suited to your personality or not, and if you're finding that you would like the pension, holidays and additional benefits having a permie role brings then I should start looking on jobserve etc for future suitable roles. Don't know what type of computer work you do, but banks seem to be the main ones recruiting at the moment.

imported_Ducklet

Thanks for your reply! Apparently its a 'rolling' contract i'm on, I do server support so i'll keep looking out for other positions.