Rory McPherson of employment law specialists Trade Union lawyers Thompsons Solicitors and Solicitor Advocates address some of the worst case scenarios which may arise when working as a freelancer. There are many others.
	The Power of the Economic Bully

	For the purposes of this article fairly neutral terms are used such as 'Organisation' rather than Company or Employer as both of these latter terms raise legal implications which may or may not be relevant for present purposes.
	1. What are the terms offered by the Organisation?
	Terms may refer to the time limits, costings etc. .
	If you say nothing, how is the Economic Bully expected to know that you can't comply with their terms? If you frankly tell them at the outset and before finally agreeing to do the work that, for example, the deadline is too tight, they may agree and be prepared to alter the terms accordingly. If you say nothing you will never know, until it's too late.
	If you can't meet the deadline imposed, why should the Economic Bully pay you at all? They may be able to use the work to their advantage and indeed the deadline may have been wholly illusory. But it may not matter if you agreed to meet it and failed.
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	2. Who is the Organisation?
	We have all heard (sometimes apocryphal) stories about soundalike organisations or trusted personal friends who turn out to have no connection with the large (and financially stable) organisation you thought had commissioned you. If you've never done work for the Organisation before, can you be sure that that the Economic Bully isn't also a Financial Minnow?
	3. Are you going to be paid by the Organisation for the work done?
	If you send in an invoice without agreeing the precise terms and cost of the work beforehand, do you really expect a cheque to be sent Snail Mail to you? It may be the honourable response, but will it be the response of the Economic Bully?
	Even if you have agreed to do work at a certain cost to the Organisation, when do you expect to be paid? Will it be 30 days after the work is completed? If so, when is the work completed?
	What do you do when the Economic Bully explains very nicely that it's not really what they wanted and could you do it over again? One response is to say no. This could be characterised by the Economic Bully as the Nose Cutting (to Spite one's Face) Response.
	4. Are you going to be held responsible for losses incurred by the Organisation for shoddy work?
	If you pause for a moment , this should not be so unlikely. If you employed a plumber to install a shower in your house, in the absence of an agreement, if house was flooded as a result would you blame yourself or the plumber? If an Organisation sent you instructions to enter information on a database and the information became scrambled, do you think the Economic Bully would accept that they must be to blame? Even if they were, would you be able to resist the Economic Bully who said your work was deficient and simply refused to pay you? Or worse claimed damages against you?
	In law the plumber's responsibility may be simply to perform his trade with reasonable care, but if you were dependent on the work being successfully completed, say because your daughter was being married in your house the following week would you, as a potential Economic Bully yourself, accept that these things happen and pay for the work without recourse to lawyers and the Courts?
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	5. A further issue is, of course, the very reason for using Freelancers.
	If the Organisation is a Business (and it can be probably assumed that it is) it is probably using Freelancers because ultimately it is cheaper than employing full time staff. The Economic Bully would certainly, by definition, regard full time staff as being unduly costly as it would have to consider amongst other matters, the costs of supplying premises and equipment. They would also have to juggle work commitments around staff holidays. They would also have to consider the various administrative and legislative requirements imposed on an Employer, such as ensuring that you did not suffer injury as a result of being required to work in a ergonomically hostile environment.
	Remember, as a Freelancer, you will probably have no-one to blame if you put yourself out of commission for months as a result of electrocuting yourself, putting your back out.
	One final point. While an employee can ultimately withdraw his labour and inconvenience the employer, if you threaten to withdraw labour from the Economic Bully because it is acting as such, who does it really inconvenience?
	Rory McPherson...

 

 

 

Rory McPherson of employment law specialists Trade Union lawyers Thompsons Solicitors and Solicitor Advocates can be contacted via the Thompsons website at www.thompsons-scotland.co.uk   Rory also writes for  on the UK legislation which defines the differences between the rights of a freelance worker or independent contractor and those of an employee.   The Legislation