A major UK oil services provider has elected to cut the rates of onshore British contractors by a full 10%. Aberdeen based Wood Group PSN has taken this decision in order to better ‘control costs’, and they also intend to focus more of their future attention upon their growing staff ratio as well.

Many of the contractors who are going to be affected are going to be given the opportunity to become permanent members of staff. The marketing director of the firm in question has stated that the high financial impact of contractor rates is ‘driving industry costs up’, and in his opinion this situation is just not sustainable.

Of course, contractor rates have always been favourable in an overall sense, and, according to the relevant BBC News article, contractor rates have risen by three times the amount that staff pay has in recent years. This means that contractor rates will remain attractive in the main, and so the opportunity to transfer to a staff position is not forced to be an opportunity that many of the affected contractors will embrace.

However, what this situation does highlight is the uncertainty that can be experienced by many contractors regarding their rates, and it also serves as a reminder that the extremely positive economic climate of late is not forced to continue ad infinitum. Contractors can never be one hundred per cent certain of a reliable income, so they must take every precaution to ensure that their rates – whatever the exact figures might be – are safeguarded as much as possible.

Because of the potentially complex business operations that contractors are at times exposed to, many can find that they are not actually going about their business in the most financially efficient way. As a result, dedicated contractor services are available to give these workers the opportunity to take advantage of a contractor limited company or an umbrella company, and at ICS we are one such long serving service.

Such contractor focused businesses allow those who are contracting to make the most of their earnings, and that’s an undeniably positive thing to do. At ICS, we also specialise in making things as easy as possible for you using our accountancy and payroll expertise, and you can easily see how much extra income you could be taking home right now using our contractor calculator. If you’d like to find out more, please feel free to call us on 0800 195 3750 or email us on info@icsuk.com today.