I work for a company a as self-contractor. I was given a contract for 3 months, 2 weeks before the end date I reminded my employer that my contract would be ending. It has now been almost a month since the contract ended. My employer now says think of it as a month to month. Should I just stop working for this company? Is this legal?
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1Is it legal? We don't know. What country is this? Have you talked to an attorney? Should you stop working for them? We can't decide that for you. Are they still paying you? What problem does not having a contract create for you? What are you ultimately wanting to happen?– joeqwertyCommented Jun 5, 2022 at 14:39
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1okay, sorry... I thought that this is what the site was for, to ask questions?– Yvonne StilesCommented Jun 5, 2022 at 14:59
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3This site isn't for legal advice, which in essence is what you need. If you're looking for opinions and "unofficial" guidance then I would tell you that as a freelance/independent contractor I never enter into a business agreement/engagement without a contract. So, should you have a contract? I would say yes, but I'm not an attorney and my opinion shouldn't be regarded as legal advice.– joeqwertyCommented Jun 5, 2022 at 15:15
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1@YvonneStiles: there is a different site for specific legal questions law.stackexchange.com/questions .– HilmarCommented Jun 5, 2022 at 15:43
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1@PhilipKendall You're being very harsh to a newbie. There will be lots of people here who have been in similar situations and can offer the benefit of their experience.– Dave GremlinCommented Jun 5, 2022 at 20:20
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2 Answers
It's not necessarily illegal to work without a contract. A verbal agreement is a sort of contract. You'd need to check the specifics in your locale.
You may even fall under the 'Informal Sector', I assume the USA has one similar to other places.
The main issue with no written contract apart from taxes and things like that is if there is a dispute.
There is a thing called “implicit contract”. You had a contract for three months. After those three months, you could have refused to work, or the company could have refused to allow you to work, in either case the contract would have ended.
If you continue working, and the company doesn’t stop you, you have an implicit contract. The company can pay you and everything is fine. If they don’t pay you, you would take them to court, and the court would most likely decide that they have to pay according to the original three month contract.
So it is legal. You can stop working or continue working; they have to pay until they tell you to stop working which they can do at any time. And you can stop working any time. Say you look for another job and find one where you can start in ten weeks time. You can then continue working for ten weeks and say goodbye after that. They can also stop you from working and stop paying anytime. In theory you could continue working for the next 30 years.
answered Jun 5, 2022 at 20:02
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This is even more true if at some point you said "Do you want me to keep working" and they said "yes". Even if that was just a simple email. Commented Jun 5, 2022 at 21:51