Try to get an overall picture.A contracting company brings in tradesmen to work in order to complete a project or job fro their client. The aim is to make at least a reasonable profit at the end of it and give the client what he needs and on time.
On the job, the chain of command lies where the tradesmen must answer to their contractor and the contractor must answer to his client who have given them control of the project to be completed within a certain time scale and budget. If the project is not completed within the agreed timescale, contra charges can be applied by the client, which will reduce the overall profit at the end of the job, the contractor in turn will try to regain these losses by taking the cost from the tradesmen and or even from the material suppliers and even from the delivery companies for damaged goods . Each time you are contra charged as a tradesman you lose profit. On site, things are not going to plan, some of the tradesmen are creating problems by not completing work correctly which inturn creates a backlog of work as the works need to be redone, some are leaving a lot of mess behind them when they move on to other areas of the site or even have left the job, there are damages to materials that must be replaced at extra cost, there are also slow tradesmen just not completing work in good time so creating a bottle neck of work,. All create costs to the job and the budget and all is contra chargeable. Seeing the other side of the coin ..
If the contractor is making mistakes and sending in the trades to certain areas of the job at the wrong time, ceilings are being put up before the services are completley installed and inturn the once completed ceilings are now being damaged due to air conditioners, fire alarm installers or insulators having to remove ceiling tiles and then complete their above ceiling services work above a new and already installed ceiling grid, it will of course create problems and damages. Damages that will need to be paid for by someone. Unorganised contractors will rush the trades and the work process .. .. he was instructed to install the ceiling and he was instructed to fit above ceiling services at the same time...  Read More ..
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| | A camera with you onsite .. just in case
Photographic evidence that you have completed your part of the job correctly and without damages will always be useful should you need to prove that you are in the right. Photographing your work is not illegal, you are entitled to have photographs of your work before, during and after completion.
So long as you are not taking pictures of the whole building and possibly creating a security risk to the property owners (eg you may be on an MOD project) then you are fine. If in doubt always ask for permission first. By collecting hard evidence of your work for your portfolio of projects plus of course, just incase someone tries to claim against you for bad workmanship, is always a good idea, JUST IN CASE..A worst case scenario If you are due to be paid at the END of a long job and not before, then you must be aware that you may not receive what you believe you should, in fact it is possible you may not be paid at all. That of course is the worst case scenario for you after a long haul of working sometimes for months without any interim payments. It can be soul destroying and literally leave you in huge financial difficulty that is hard to get out of. Always keep a record of any work you complete ...including meterage, if possible get copies of paperwork used by the contracts manager when he signs you off an area or section of work (you are fully entitled to receive a copy of any signing off for your own records) and where possible include images of your works complete. This is important if you are on a long term contract with only interim payments coming in to cover your fuel costs etc or if you are not receiving any interim payments at all.
If you work for three months and then don't get paid, it is almost guaranteed you will have a fight on your hands trying to get what is due to you and it's highly possible if you are paid, you won't be paid in full as there will be some charges taken off along the way. If you have to ask WHY you have not been paid in full, then it is very possible you have wrongly been contra charged.
Try to get this contra charge paid back to you and it may be a long frustrating time in doing so. Forget about it and they will do it again, and again because they know you don't mind and won't say anything. 14 days notice to rectify a mistake before contra charges can be applied. If you make a legitimate mistak onsite , by rights, you are entitled to rectify the problem yourself. You are entitled tobe informed of any problems and you are also entitled to rectify them BEFORE you are contra charged. Read More ..
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Contra Charges