Pertemps

Avoid this company!!! Never again!!!

When the U.K government made the decision in 2020 to delay IR35 law, Seven Trent decided to delay internal process till 1 month before. They have not looked forward to impact this could cause. They had 1 whole year to consult with everyone to get the clear picture, however this was not the case. A complete shambles.

STW have clearly taken a blanket determination approach but are playing along with the legal requirements to produce SDS and allow a sham appeal. They intentionally avoided all communication with contractors and left the process so late that appeals cannot be completed before April . People you have never heard of completed your SDS without any contact with either you or STW staff that you are working with to understand how your contract is operating . They appear to have found every contractor inside and therefore a disguised employee but they don't want to pay their own employment taxes - so much for being a responsible company - so they have passed the employers NI costs on through reduced rates in every case I am aware of. It seems some of the management are obsessed with whacking contractors but this can only come at the cost losing their best contractors in an uncontrolled fashion and being left with their worst. Anyone they eventually find to replace the losses will come at greater cost and reduced efficiency as they get up to speed with STW nuances.

Absolute shambles. Good quality contractors leaving right, left and centre. Appeals process an absolute joke. No communication, no interaction, no fact finding from the contractors. They had over a year to prepare, but left it until less than one month before the legislation kicks in to start issuing SDS documentation, yet they are adamantly sticking to the 45 day ruling for hearing appeals. HR and Pertemps seem oblivious to the havoc they are causing. IT management are pulling their hair out and projects are beginning to stall. Senior HR personnel surely need to consider their position as a result of this debacle - or have it considered for them. It is simply unacceptable for them to have handled it in the way they have.

Consistently bad communications . No clear explanation of the appeal process. A 45 day deadline that would end after contracts are expire. Flawed SDS and it seems that the people answering the CEST questions probably never saw the contracts they are assessing. They even missed their own deadline. Unless they were hoping for another stay of execution its hard to see how they couldn't get this done - they've had all year. A shame really, and they had already cut our rates once, the new 'inside' offer is a further insult and only leaves those either too lazy to leave or those taking the money while they look elsewhere.

I looked up incompetent in the dictionary and ended up with the Severn Trent HR dept and Pretemps being the definition. For all of us waiting on appeals good luck but I think we know the answer. For those happy to be inside you will become a disguised employee (zero benefits and rights) shame on you! Anyone considering an inside contract here in the future I can recommend avoiding this company.

SDS landed today despite CEST analysis being done 6 weeks ago. Seems like blanket determination everywhere. CEST answers riddled with errors. Atmosphere is grim.

SDS issued today and blanket inside determinations using CEST starting to land. Many contractors affected & unhappy. The 45 day appeal process was a nice touch given what the date is.

Neither Thames Water nor Pertemps appear to have any structure or framework in place to accommodate Outside IR35 contracts and have seemingly done nothing to try and put one in place. Pertemps have been conspicuous by their absence of any communication on this subject for more than 12 months, they don't respond to any attempts to clarify the situation and IR35 assessments have been conducted behind closed doors with the contractors themselves excluded from the discussion. Thames have basically come up with the answer that everyone should be deemed Inside and then put in place an assessment process designed entirely to reach that conclusion. A number of the contractors I believe are planning to extend their contracts beyond March on an Inside basis and leave as soon as they find an Outside contract. Others are planning to leave at the end of March.

SDS assessments only provided to contractors from 11th March, despite being done in January! All deemed inside. Pertemps have provided no updates since on the Umbrella options or how this will be implemented. To be fair, many of the Thames management have tried to find ways to mitigate this, but at the board level there is have no appetite to consider the wider impacts and are essentially forcing a blanket ban.

Still haven't been told! We're all chasing and they keep promising to tell us. Heard on the grapevine it's going to be role based as in if a permie does the role, then it's inside?? Words fail me..

Fair open comms with individual CEST assessments being done - PSC to go through pertemps or umbrella

- Severn Trent are hiring PSC contractors up until April 3rd. - The likely situation is a blanket ban on PSCs with the only option to work through an umbrella. - Many legitimate outside contractors have left the organisation already. - Likely back-fill of positions using agencies - Cognizant / Keytree, etc. at significant additional costs. - Morale is low with enormous pressure of permanent staff - Projects seeing significant impact