| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | strange contractual conditions.. Thread poster: Brandis (X)
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in plain English
they want to say that translating for them (and being paid for this) does not give you the right to declare yourself as their employee.
You are just a contractor or vendor or supplier.
example: Just imagine that I have translate somebody's driving license from Estonian for the Department of State. I cannot say that I am a Department of State official on this ground. :0)
[Edited at 2007-04-08 18:06]
| | | | Roomy Naqvy 
India
Local time: 02:11
English to Hindi
+ ...
| Matter of ethics | Apr 8, 2007 |
Narasimhan Raghavan wrote:
OK, I am not an employee of the outsourcer in the legal sense of the term. But then, why should he go ahead and restrain me legally from taking up any work from his clients for a fixed period of time, even after the contract has ceased?
It all boils down to this. Whover is strong, wins.
Regards,
N.Raghavan
Narasimhan, I have signed such clauses with a number of translation companies out of my own free judgment and not because I was coerced into it. I am not interested in poaching into the business of my clients 'translation companies' or 'whoever else'. If a new client contacts me and if I feel that it has been the client of one of my regular, well-paying clients, I do ask them if they would like me to work with them, where my clients have never refused me...
There are some very reputable international end clients for whom I have worked by working for some again very reputable translation companies worldwide. I have had a number of Fortune 500 [or probably Fortune 100, if they had such a list] clients and the volume of my work is sufficiently huge, my agency clients are normally quite polite, respectful of my work and pay well, so, why should I even dream of working for their clients directly?
And as far as work is concerned, my order book is full... I have not replied to four translation companies who asked me to fill up their forms etc in the last week [new clients] because I didn't have time to do those formalities. The moment I have some extra time, I'll do so.
This is how I look at it with no insinuation towards you, who are a very respected colleague.
Roomy
| | | | | My point was something else | Apr 9, 2007 |
The agency in question did have both aspects. Let me clarify. On the one hand, their conditions were similar to those pointed out by Brandis, that is to say, I cannot expect to be treated as their employee with all the benefits implied by that condition. Then they went to demand from me the assurance that I would not do work for their clients for a fixed period after the contract with them expired.
This is where I asked the agency about the logic of their conditions. And I politely... See more The agency in question did have both aspects. Let me clarify. On the one hand, their conditions were similar to those pointed out by Brandis, that is to say, I cannot expect to be treated as their employee with all the benefits implied by that condition. Then they went to demand from me the assurance that I would not do work for their clients for a fixed period after the contract with them expired.
This is where I asked the agency about the logic of their conditions. And I politely refused to sign their conditions. Yet they went on giving me work as already mentioned by me.
By the way I have always been rejecting such conditions. Can I ask the translation agency not to take work from some of my existing clients? You see, it cuts both ways. If the agency insists, I ask for a retainer fee of certain amount per month and in that case I am agreeable to their conditions.
Anyhow, now in Chennai all these things are academic, as all my clients are direct clients, paying me very good word rates. No Indian agency can match these rates and I turn down the offers of agencies.
Regards,
N.Raghavan
Roomy Naqvy wrote:
Narasimhan Raghavan wrote:
OK, I am not an employee of the outsourcer in the legal sense of the term. But then, why should he go ahead and restrain me legally from taking up any work from his clients for a fixed period of time, even after the contract has ceased?
It all boils down to this. Whover is strong, wins.
Regards,
N.Raghavan
Narasimhan, I have signed such clauses with a number of translation companies out of my own free judgment and not because I was coerced into it. I am not interested in poaching into the business of my clients 'translation companies' or 'whoever else'. If a new client contacts me and if I feel that it has been the client of one of my regular, well-paying clients, I do ask them if they would like me to work with them, where my clients have never refused me...
There are some very reputable international end clients for whom I have worked by working for some again very reputable translation companies worldwide. I have had a number of Fortune 500 [or probably Fortune 100, if they had such a list] clients and the volume of my work is sufficiently huge, my agency clients are normally quite polite, respectful of my work and pay well, so, why should I even dream of working for their clients directly?
And as far as work is concerned, my order book is full... I have not replied to four translation companies who asked me to fill up their forms etc in the last week [new clients] because I didn't have time to do those formalities. The moment I have some extra time, I'll do so.
This is how I look at it with no insinuation towards you, who are a very respected colleague.
Roomy ▲ Collapse
| | | | MariusV
Lithuania
Local time: 22:41
English to Lithuanian
+ ...
| EXACTLY :) ! | Apr 10, 2007 |
Heinrich Pesch wrote:
Some English agencies sometimes send us contracts with many pages and we just should sign them and fax them back.
I generally refuse to sign contracts more than one page long. First of all I do not want to read them and I cannot sign anything I haven't read carefully and understood.
So if these agencies do not want to do business the normal way (accepting an offer by simple email exchange) they can forget about it.
Cheers
Heinrich
I FULLY agree with Heinrich - it often happens that agencies send to sign contracts of a dozen pages and actually you get work from that that makes the same amount of a dozen pages per year I think there is a very simple principle - if people want to cooperate, or have an interest for that, they simply cooperate and a contract of even several volumes with force majeure will not help if there is something wrong...So, these long contracts actually do not make much sense (neither legally, nor practically)...The only document needed for real cooperation is the Purchase Order, and, if there is something specific about the project, all the conditions might be stipulated in the Purchase Order (and the Purchase Order is the actual CONTRACT)
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