I am in the US and started a short 6 month contract in early May. My contract was with an agency in Europe that then had me start work as a contractor for a US based company.
I thought everything was going smoothly until recently when I was called by my contracting company (in Europe) that the client wished to terminate my contract. It was mentioned that it was due to extraordinary circumstances which is convenient as this would allow them to terminate my contract without notice.
However, there are a couple of things that I am concerned about. They mention me being late for some meetings and for an interview as it became my responsibility to replace someone leaving our team. These meetings were a 1:1 and a training session. I did mention to my supervisor at the US based company that sometimes Teams would say connecting to the meeting and just continue to spin forcing me to restart. I was also told to not work over 40 hours a week so if my hour lunch break fell into a meeting, I wasn’t going to cut lunch early because again, 40 hours.
It was also brought up that they needed me to handle some calls and work some tickets. Cool so I start working tickets and reach out to a member of my team to better understand the call flow/ticketing process internally. No basis for the amount was ever mentioned. They also asked that I log into a phone system at all times during my shift which I obliged but when I would work on something outside of that window it would ultimately disconnect and likely show that I was not logged in.
Finally I was able to hire someone to fill the role and my supervisor at the US based company asked me to create a training program and deliver it to her by the end of the week. (This is right before my contract was ended)
My question is because of how I was managed such as specific work hours (8-5 cst) going through multiple trainings including e-learnings. Required to attend meetings and multiple 1:1 meetings a week with my supervisor as well as the requirement to always check my Teams status was correct (if it went idle it would certainly my be mentioned), they ended my contract after roughly 30 days based on these extraordinary circumstances.
Also, after reading over my contract with the Europe based company it mentions that to terminate the contract they need a notice of 1 month of course with the exception of extraordinary circumstances. It also mentions that if I fail to deliver on an ask that they notify me in writing (nothing was ever provided in writing) and that I have 7 days to remedy the failure. Then they can choose to provide a 30 day notice and terminate the contract if they felt the work was unsatisfactory. I was also required to run monthly reports at the end of the month.
Here is another portion of the contract:
“The Contractor shall be available for phone and email consultation as required in connection
with the proper performance of the Services.
When the Contractor has accepted and committed to a specific deliverable, the Contractor shall
deliver it within the established deadline or timetable for the deliverable. The Contractor shall
also ensure that all of the deliverable’s quality requirements are satisfied. If the Contractor will
not be able to satisfy all quality requirements or deliver the deliverable within the established
deadline or timetable (despite the Contractor’s obligation to do so under this Agreement), the
Contractor shall immediately notify the Company.”
“The Agreement can be terminated by either party with a notice period of 1 month to the last
day of the month. The possibility of extraordinary termination for good cause remains
unaffected. During the 1 month period after such notice is provided, the parties shall continue
to act toward each other in good faith. The Contractor understands and agrees that the notice
requirements contained in this clause fully satisfy the Company’s obligations to the Contractor
relating to termination of the Agreement and that the Contractor has no further entitlements
under statute, common law, civil law, or contract.”
The US based company also provided the computer, software, and cell phone to conduct the contract. The expectation was to roll into a W2 at the end of the contract.
My question is, should I try and fight for them to pay out the remaining months of my contract? It seems like they said extraordinary to simply get out of giving notice. Looking back it is also obvious that I was being misclassified as a 1099 due to the restrictions of how and when I work with the meetings, trainings, etc.
I’m just not sure of everything because I worked for a Europe based firm and my contract was not with the US based company I was providing services to. I assume the US laws and the IRS would hold water or would my case be with the European courts? Any help and or advice is greatly appreciated!