Engineering recruitment consultancies that have engineers "stuck" in contract for years?

faringdon

Hi,

I was once put forward to work for (or rather, "via") a very big international engineering consultancy as

an electronic engineer. They told me that they would always pay me a wage of £50k per year...

and when inbetween jobs, they would also pay me then aswell(!!)

This actually worried me because if they were doing that, then it sounds like I would 

be signing  my working life over to them, and in fact, I probably would not be allowed

to ever stop working for their consultancy for a long period?

Anyway, I ended up taking a job at another place so did not sign up with them.

But now they are again offering to put me forward to another electronics job, and I am concerned that they

may well try and slip some document in there in which I sign away years of my

working life to them?

The consultancy's name begins with "A", but that's all I can say.

Do you know if this kind of thing goes on in UK?...ie people sign up to work via a recruitment 

consultancy and its like signing up for the Army for three years?

elsien

What makes you think you would be signing your work life over to them, and that you would not be able to leave? 

And if you read thoroughly all the information you are given then they won’t be able to slip anything in anyway, on the remote chances they might try, which I very much doubt.

You are coming at this from a very unusual perspective. 
So for the sake of clarity, no people do not sign up to agencies in the same way as signing up for the army. 

faringdon

Thanks, its just that if they were able to pay people between jobs, for as long as it took them  to find another job, then that is very unusual, and it seems that they would only do that if they had "ownership" of the person's working life.

elsien

There is a very simple answer to that. Which is to properly read any contract before you sign it.
Just put the name of the agency. There’s no point being coy about it. They won’t have any clue who you are if they’re even looking on here. 

DullGreyGuy

faringdon said:

Thanks, its just that if they were able to pay people between jobs, for as long as it took them  to find another job, then that is very unusual, and it seems that they would only do that if they had "ownership" of the person's working life.

You would presumably be their employee and so it's perfectly normal for you to be paid whilst you are actively engaged with an ultimate client or whilst you are sitting on the bench. You just serve your notice period like any other contract.

Even if its a B2B offer, like mine was when they offered day rate during engagement and 50% day rate whilst on the bench there was still a notice period that either party could serve to end the relationship if it no longer worked for either company. 

Grumpy_chap

Is the OP referring to the Recruitment Agency as the "consultancy", or by the phrase "very big international engineering consultancy", does the OP really mean a true consultancy such as Arup, Atkins (WSP), Arcadis?

Marcon

faringdon said:

But now they are again offering to put me forward to another electronics job, and I am concerned that they

may well try and slip some document in there in which I sign away years of my

working life to them?

The consultancy's name begins with "A", but that's all I can say.

Do you know if this kind of thing goes on in UK?...ie people sign up to work via a recruitment 

consultancy and its like signing up for the Army for three years?

Read the documents before going any further - in particular how you can end the contract.

QrizB

faringdon said:

They told me that they would always pay me a wage of £50k per year... and when inbetween jobs, they would also pay me then aswell(!!)

I suspect they'll be charging their customers £1000 a day (or more) for your services, so paying you £4k a month for 2-3 weeks (or months) between clients isn't going to dent their bottom line.

Grumpy_chap

QrizB said:

I suspect they'll be charging their customers £1000 a day (or more) for your services, so paying you £4k a month for 2-3 weeks (or months) between clients isn't going to dent their bottom line.

If this is a staff position with an engineering consultancy and the OP is between assignments, then the OP will not be doing nothing but will be put to beneficial use in business development, or updating procedures / processes or other activities that support the wider business overhead functions.

QrizB

Yes, I wasn't suggesting that OP would be sat around twiddling their thumbs!

EnPointe

Grumpy_chap said:

QrizB said:

I suspect they'll be charging their customers £1000 a day (or more) for your services, so paying you £4k a month for 2-3 weeks (or months) between clients isn't going to dent their bottom line.

If this is a staff position with an engineering consultancy and the OP is between assignments, then the OP will not be doing nothing but will be put to beneficial use in business development, or updating procedures / processes or other activities that support the wider business overhead functions.

exactly this 

 my late father while employed by a Business  worked in a role not dissimilar to working for an Engineering  Consultancy , it;s just the client was always the parent company , in fact  the job  he did before the job   he had leading up to his  early   Ill health  retirment was similar ... 

if there wasn't a big  project on ( buuidling new plants, refurbishing / repurposing exisitng  plants) there were incremental things to do  or reviews of policy  / maintainance plans ...