atw: Urgent: ITEA for a short-term contract?

Hi all -

I went in to an agency today to do the paperwork for a job that's due to 
start next week. As always, I expected to spend some time going through 
the contract looking for tricks, traps, contradictions, errors, etc. 
However, this contract is an ITEA, something I haven't come across 
before. There's a lot about it that makes me uneasy, and I wanted to 
check with you all to see if anyone's come across it yet.

The job is a 4-month contract with an FBC (Fairly Big Company). I 
expected to be employed by the agency on a PAYE basis and farmed out to 
the FBC for the fixed term of the contract. (I submit timesheets to the 
agency, they cover PI and PL insurance, and so on.)

An ITEA (Individual Transitional Employment Agreement) is a sort of "son 
of AWA", brought in by the new government. This contract says:

- I'm employed by the agency on a casual basis. Not sure what the 
implications of this are. It does say that casuals are employed on a 
'needs basis'???.

- It also says I agree to remain as a casual contractor, contrary to any 
provision contained in an Award (???), but the agency can convert me to 
part-time or full-time at their discretion.

- The agency can employ me on one more assignments, including with other 
clients than FBC. Don't like the sound of this. I want to finish this 
contract then look for the next one under my own steam.

- Termination of an Assignment doesn't terminate my employment by the 
agency. That is, when I finish my work for FBC I'm still employed by agency.

- I have to indemnify the agency for any loss they may incur because of 
loss or damage I cause to the FBC or their customers. Isn't this what PI 
and PL are for?

- The 'nominal expiry date' is 31 Dec 2009. This is a standard feature 
of ITEAs, not something the agency cooked up, but I still don't 
understand what it means. There's an elaborate termination procedure 
around the expiry date that involves two letters and declaration form 
separated by a 14-day notice period.

There are a few other problems but they're the standard things you 
expect to find in a contract. It's the arrangements above that make me 
nervous. I'm seeing the recruiter tomorrow to go through these points, 
but I'm pretty uneasy about signing this. It's one thing to haggle over 
details, another to take something that's wrong and try to change it 
point by point to make it look like the right thing.

Has anyone come across these ITEAs and has any advice?

Regards and thanks for your time if you've made it this far.

Stuart
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