HI Jayne
I'm a freelance presenter of science shows who sometimes works in
museums. If you book me to do a day's show presenting then you and I
have a contract, which essentially requires that I turn up at the
right time, with the right equipment to present my shows, and that I
am in the right place in the museum to do the shows at the times
appointed. If I fulfil these obligations, you are then obliged to
pay me for my time, even if no-one turns up to the shows. This is
right and proper, as I have done everything that I am obliged to
under the contract, and it is not my responsibility to provide the
audience.
How you then get the schools who didn't turn up to repay the money is
up to you - but I would certainly expect that if I'd turned up and
been ready to perform that you'd pay me.
Now your 'freelancers' may be people who are employed on a casual
basis to deliver sessions which are developed by the museum, and here
things may be slightly different, not least because these people may
actually not be self employed freelancers at all in law. But, if
someone has turned up to present a session that doesn't happen
because the school doesn't show up then they surely deserve to be
paid the full fee for soing that session.
If you employ people to present a series of sessions, then whether
they should be paid for all of them, irrespective of whether you
manage to get bookings for all of them is down to the wording of the
contract between you. If the agreement is for them to present so many
sessions of a particular activity within a defined timescale then
you're pretty much obliged to pay them for doing this even if you
can't get takers for all the sessions. On the other hand if you agree
that you will engage someone to present UP TO a given number of
sessions, subject to their being bookings for them, you can
legitimately only pay the presenter for the sessions actually booked.
But still, if a school cancels a booking at the last minute you'd
have to pay the presenter.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Richard;
Richard Ellam
L M Interactive
Science Shows and Hands-On Stuff
www.lminteractive.co.uk
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On 8 Dec 2010, at 11:39, Jayne Ambrose wrote:
> Hello all,
> Just a quick query about paying freelance fees if a school cancels
> and/or no school actually books one of the sessions you've commited
> to. What do you do? Our cancellation fee would not cover the cost
> of a day rate but is it really fair not to pay a freelancer their
> full day rate when they may have turned down other work to run your
> session? How do you balance being fair with keeping a sharp eye on
> the finances?
>
> I'd be really grateful to receive any feedback.
>
> Thank you in advance
> Jayne Ambrose
> Education Officer
> National Coal Mining Museum
>
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