terms-and-conditions

Terms and conditions for freelance contractors (valid from 22/10/2019)

The following agreement describes the terms and conditions of freelance work between Wisemont Language Services (hereinafter ‘the company’) and freelance contractors providing translation, proofreading, copywriting and other language services (hereinafter ‘translators’). Undertaking of any freelance work for the company means translators agree with the terms and conditions below.

  1. Acceptance of work: after receiving the assignment offer with the translation text, the translator shall send an acceptance email re-stating the understanding of:
    1. Language the text should be translated to
    2. Number of pages or, if available, word count
    3. Deadline.
  2. Commencement of work: before starting work on a translation assignment, translators shall seek formal written confirmation (‘go-ahead’)
  3. Successful completion of work: translators shall complete the assignment within the agreed deadline, to a professionally acceptable standard.
  4. Professionally acceptable standard of work means:
    1. assignment that is free of any major grammatical, lexical, semantic, factual, punctuation or other translation mistakes;
    2. assignment that is free of any omissions including descriptions of graphic elements such as seals and stamps;
    3. assignment that is clear and easy to understand;
    4. assignment that is correctly formatted, i.e. striving to reconstruct the source text formatting as closely as possible;
    5. assignment that conforms to the target language standards and conventions.
  5. Corrections: translators shall agree to:
    1. make any corrections suggested  by the PM if the assignment fails to meet the Professionally acceptable standard of work (see above)
    2. if unable to do so, translators shall agree to have their remuneration lowered by up to 25% of the agreed rate to cover the costs of external corrections.
  6. Delivery of work: translators shall deliver work in .doc or .docx file format, saved under the original name of the file with suffix ‘_TRA’,  directly to the person who contacted  them, via email to translations@wisemont.info , and send a confirmation by Facebook.
  7. Translator shall be responsible for running regular security scans on their devices and make sure the emails and files they send are free of viruses.
  8. Failure to deliver work within the agreed deadline without applying for an extension or a compelling reason shall result in non-payment and possibility of further legal consequences.
  9. Extensions: translators may seek extension of the deadline by  more than 2 hours at least 24 hours before the deadline. In the case the extension is not granted,  and the assignment cannot be accomplished within the previously agreed deadline, translators shall help the company to find cover to complete the assignment within the previously agreed deadline.
  10. Payment:
    1. translators shall be paid a fixed rate of 26 – 45 GBP (depending on experience and project) per 1000 words of translation assignment (source text in the case of editable files and target text in the case of dead files) and 10-15 GBP for proofreading of external work.
    2. The wordcount of the translation shall be estimated on the basis of Google Documents, whenever possible. 
    3. translators shall keep record of the word counts of their part of translation and provide them when delivering work.
    4. translators shall be paid monthly for all assignments successfully completed within a given calendar month. 
    5. translators will be issued a remittance advice listing completed assignments, wordcounts and total amount due no later than on the first Sunday of the month following the month for which the remittance advice was issued. 
    6. translators shall be paid on the first Sunday of the month following the month for which the remittance advice was issued. 
    7. translators shall be paid in British pounds via PayPal, or bank account in the UK, unless agreed otherwise.
    8. Translators must provide a valid PayPal email address (or bank account number if previously agreed to be paid by bank transfer) upon request in order for the payment to be processed.
    9. 1. Currency. The payments for translations shall be made in Pounds Sterling (GBP).
    10. Small payment policy. Due to the fixed-rate international payment fees (15 GBP per transfer, regardless of the transfer amount) if the payment due to the translator in one calender month is smaller than 100 GBP, the payment shall be made via PayPal or bank transfer to a British (UK) based bank account. International Payments will only be made if the amount due exceeds 100 GBP. We would not be able to accept small assignments otherwise as we would be actually losing money on them, which would mean less work for everyone.
    11. Carry-over policy. The outstanding small payment carries over to the next month until the amount outstanding exceeds 100 GBP and hence qualifies for International Bank transfer OR: the waiting period is longer than 80 days in which case the translator will be paid the small payment regardless of the fee or until the translator has changed their mind about the transfer method. All transfers will be still made on the first Sunday of a calender month. Provision of correct payment information. The translators are responsible for filling in the Translator’s Contact and Payment Information with complete payment and contact data at least 24 hours before the payment date. If payment cannot be processed on the payment date due to:
      1. incomplete or incorrect payment or personal information (e.g. we are required to provide the recipient’s bank address for international bank transfers; the name on the form needs to be exactly the same as on the bank account, otherwise the transfer will be rejected automatically; IBAN/BIC data need to be complete with country code; all information provided needs to be in Latin Alphabet without diacritics/special characters)
      2. inability to send the payment due to issues with the recipient’s bank (e.g. lack of corresponding bank in the requested currency – pound sterling (GBP))
      Will result in postponement of the payment until the next day day (the following month)
      3. However, if the payment is not possible on the payment day due to other unrelated reason, e.g. technical difficulties, we will strive to pay as soon as possible after that day.
    12. Payment preference. Unless explicitly stated otherwise in writing at least 24 hours before the payment date, if the translator has provided a PayPal account on top of the International Bank account on the Translator’s Information and Payment form, the PayPal account will be treated as the default form of payment.
    13. The Company is not liable for any international bank fees, transfer charges, and currency conversion rate charges. For information about charges, please visit your payment provider’s website.
    14. We will provide translators with the original payment confirmation stating the amount sent upon translator’s request.
    15. In case of any questions, translators shall seek help from the PM managing their assignment