Can a Company End a Consultant's Contract to Instead Hire an Employee
My question involves business law in the state of: Florida.
I have a staff consultant agreement with a company that won contracts with two county governments. My name is listed on both contracts as the staff member and provider of a specific service with a specific certification that was required in the bid. The company did not have a staff member that had the expertise and necessary certification to satisfy the bids, so they brought me in through a staff consultant agreement.
I have been working for the past two years for this company on one of the contracts and have been paid with no problem. The company now has a new owner and I am suspecting that they now want to hire a full-time staff member to save money over paying me. Can they have somebody else do the work for the remainder of the contracts and "squeeze me out" despite the fact that the original bids and actual contracts have MY name on them as the person that will be doing the work? What are my rights?
Thank you.
Re: Can a Company End a Consultant's Contract to Instead Hire an Employee
The company's relationship with you is governed by its contract with you. Even if doing so would violate their contracts with the county governments, unless you have a contract that restricts their right to do so, they can end their relationship with you at any time.
Depending on the terms of their contracts with the county governments, firing you may breach those contracts -- and if that's the case that would likely deter them from firing you during the term of the contracts, assuming they could not obtain permission from the governments to use somebody else to perform your designated role.