Umbrella company contractors might be concerned to learn that recruiter Hays made a rather embarrassing gaffe last week when one of its employees sent an email to staff at the Royal Bank of Scotland disclosing the pay rate of RBS contractors!
Managers at RBS were sent an email reminding them that timesheets needed to be updated in time for the August bank holiday, but the email included an attachment which showed the daily pay rate of 3,000 contractors. 800 employees at the bank received the mail.
The email revealed that RBS, which is 84% owned by taxpayers, is paying up to £2,000 per day for limited company contractors at a time when 1,000 permanent jobs have been axed and a further 800 offshored. The contractors earning the top rate are those possessing specialist IT and accounting expertise.
A spokesman from RBS said the bank had little control over the amount it pays for contractors. The bank follows the market rate and the advice of its recruitment consultants.
RBS is now understandably concerned about data security and its wider relationship with the recruiter. It is unknown whether contractors from other agencies receive similar pay rates but the spokesman did stress that the contractors receiving the top rate were specialist seniors and therefore likely to be paid more than other contractors. It has also not been revealed whether the £2,000 is the rate the contractors receive, or the rate the bank pays Hays.
Hays has apologised for the blunder and launched an internal inquiry into how this could have happened.
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Image: Oops… Papa, je crois que j’ai lavé ton 10-22 ! by Thomas Claveirole
