Becoming a contractor involves an element of risk – after all, once your contract is up with one company, it’s time to find the next. Some contractors will go onto other contracts, but others expect their contract to be renewed if the work is there. Unfortunately for the IT contractors at the French bank BNP Paribas, the work is there, but they are being faced with termination of their contracts unless they take at least a 4% pay cut by early July. This is not just for IT contractors in the UK, but all across BNP Paribas’ global operations.

The bank has been experiencing some financial issues lately and last week Hong Kong’s securities regulator fined them almost £1million for not reporting ‘cross-trades’ over a 10 year period. They were also fined a massive £5.1billion last July by US authorities for breaking American sanctions against trade with Sudan, Iran, and Cuba.

However, there’s no evidence that either of these financial issues are the reason BNP Paribas has chosen to cut IT contractors rates – they’ve been known to be cut IT contractor rates in the past, having reduced rates in the grip of the financial crisis in 2008, and also in 2011.

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With many contractors choosing not to accept the cut and instead find other work BNP Paribas could face an IT skill shortage as the summer season approaches and hiring managers go on holiday. The are some contractors that have accepted the cut and instead using it to secure flexible working arrangements

We know IT contractors are still in demand as we highlighted it in a recent blog post and we provide specialist accountancy, tax and legislative advice to these skilled contractors. If you’d like to know more about us and how we can help you please talk to us online or call 0800 195 3750.