and agreement for delayed payment... how can i guarantee it?

[joko]

i am due to start a job, and due to unexpected funding issues the producer wants to delay payments ... i am not happy about this as sometimes its a real hassle to get paid - emailing, chasing them up, waiting, even had people leaving the company and the new people have no idea of the situation etc.

i have always, after hassle, been paid eventually, except 3 times when they just didnt pay my expenses, and ignored, fobbed me off etc - and frankly i am sick of it... i shouldnt have to chase them.

so, if i decide to agree to this, is there something i can insist they sign as a legal document that i could use if they should eventually not pay?

i thought if i set out an agreement, it may make them less likely to try to renege on it.

is there a particular form? or would i have to write something myself?

can anyone help with wording? i havent a clue really.

thanks

[Nibble]

Wouldn't a pre-employment Consulting Agreement be worth considering, this could then put in place the constraints applying to late payment/incompletion/late payment, such as http://www.lawdepot.c...ing-agreement/?loc=GB

As from what you have posted looks like just a request to state legally what the indemnity should either of the signatories fail to fulfill the conditions of the contract.

[joko]

thanks nibble, do you know the average price for a document on that site?

the fact that they wont tell you until you have registered and made a document makes me think its expensive...

That looks like a good form, but i'm not sure it would translate well to the industry...the wording etc, but its useful for guidelines

[VivienneM]

I do so agree with you. I'm self-employed myself, and have spent too much time lately chasing late payments. I think if you are a small company/sole trader, there is some legislation in place which means you should get paid promptly, but am not sure exactly what it is.

This site appears quite helpful? A few good tips, perhaps.

http://buckworthsolicitors.co.uk/?p=824

[joko]

thanks vivienne - i don't really mind a slight delay, i know sometimes these things happen - but this time they want to delay until late september!

i might just refuse, and insist on being paid as usual, but if i do decide to agree i want something to back me up

[MoonRocker]

forgive me joko but in this situation you demand advance payment. They sound like an unreliable shower to me. It's like when a cab driver doesn't like the look of you they ask for the money first. Apologies but this sort of "customer" I just won't deal with. To answer your question though, yes no doubt you can get things signed but if they are serial late/non payers then the paperwork won't help. I'm not in possession of all the facts here but I'd tell them to take a long walk frankly.

[tonywiltshire]

You should have a contract of employment in which offer, acceptance, consideration and intention to be legally bound will normally be present. This should contain a number of terms and conditions and these may be express or implied terms, express terms are those which have been agreed even if it is a “take it or leave it” basis. Implied terms are those which may not have been agreed but are so obvious that they do not need to be mentioned but are held to be part of the contract.

That you will be paid should be included in the terms with the frequency and amount, together with reimbursement of business expenses. I suggest rather than creating another document you write to say you will comply with the terms of your contract and expect your employer to do likewise.
They may well have a cash-flow problem so be cautious.

[joko]

moonrocker.. this company haven't done anything wrong... i havent worked with them yet. they just seem a tad amateurish.... they are paying me well so i dont mind that they are somewhat naive

this is just a precautionary measure in case they turn out to the type that mess me around.

[joko]

tony - not sure what the contract will say but it rarely seems to make difference... i thought maybe the fact tht i have gone to the effort of getting my own letter, will make them realise i will not be messed with.

one company i worked for kept claiming they were waiting on the contracts to come back from somewhere and we ended up signing them at the end of the shoot ... i realised later that although they were a standard contract - seen loads of identical ones that they had added a small extra clause in mine saying that any budget overspend would be taken from my wages....hence why i didnt see it till the end, and not realising any issue, i glanced over it and signed it...

aside from that being out of order, the 3 instances of overspend were THERE fault! buying things i already had, insisting we pay extra to get somethign we couldnt afford and correcting a cockup by one of their crew...