Long Awaited Law.. Freelance Contract
Human life has been continuously developing and growing, in line with the necessity of modernity whenever it needs to solve a problem or find an easier way to save money and effort. Especially in our modern era; Where the speed of communications and transactions; Giving the priority to the electronic aspect based on the Internet in dealing with the direct personal aspect; This has contributed greatly to the decline of what people are familiar with in the affairs of their lives gradually from the traditional that does not serve interests compared to the unbridled development that the whole world is going through.
As in the past, in many jobs, trades, and techniques, people no longer need the presence of a worker or employee within the paid institution; the worker may have done the work required of his home, café, public square or commonplace of business, via a mobile computer; the employee may even work for several employers and institutions in any country or multi countries simultaneously; He doesn’t worry about each other, and at the same time he doesn’t have the bond of individual contract employment that has prevailed over the old period in employment relationships.
The general circumstances of lockdown due to the new Corona pandemic in 2019; was a significant impact on the increasing trend of many employers towards get their work is done through freelancers’ employees; Some professions had a larger share than others; blogging mobile phone programming, websites, and design; and advisory services generally in law, engineering, enterprise, management, etc. This method saved employers with expenses and costs required by the employee’s or employee’s presence in the enterprise a period; The freelance has also benefited from saving transportation, time, and dress expenses if he or she works from his or her home.
There is no doubt these transactions are subject in their general principle and order to the rules on which most contracts are based; which begins with the parties to the contract and their address; to inform each party of its role; the address and cause of the contract; The freelancer must know exactly what it was required to accomplish; The duration of that work; And the money the employer will pay to the freelancer, whether hourly, daily or after finishing the work.
The ponderer of these contracts may find them to overlap between the electronic transactions and commerce Act and the provisions of those contracts; & civil law on the other hand; We may have taken the Labour Act out of this overlap for many reasons; because These transactions are not directly subject to the provisions of the Labour Code, as they have features that are not available and do not conform to those subject to the provisions of the Labour Code; For example, if we take the Qatari Labour Act No. 14 of 2004 (readable with Act No. 21 of 2015 regulating the entry, exit, stay and security of arrivals), provisions are governing such relations; The relationship between employer and worker was originally based on the latter’s presence within the State; According to a residence permit for work; This alone is enough to destroy the idea of a freelancer who can work in more than one place and who, in agreement with her, does not need to be in one place without the other.
Perhaps the exception with which a worker residing in the State of Qatar can work additional work after formal employment with another person with the consent of the original employer and the Ministry of the Interior; The same is the case for certain acts of administration in which a worker is a partner and authorized to sign a company with the approval of the competent authorities of the competent administrative unit of the Ministry of the Interior – per the provisions of articles 16-23 of the Act regulating the entry and exit of residency of immigrants.
Some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, have sought to legalize the idea of a Freelance employee by creating a digital platform -adopted by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development- to assist those who seek their functional independence by registering and adopting them following their respective disciplines; And funds those who need it.
In the United States of America and in particular the State of New York; On May 15, 2017, the Act was introduced through the Bureau of Labor Policy and Standards of the Department of Consumer Affairs and is a representative of the employees of the Government of the City of New York -one of the largest states in terms of the census – by which the Act defines a Freelance employee as (Any individual hired by a chartered party to work as an independent contractor to provide paid services.).
Freelancers officers work in many different areas in New York State, among the most common for freelancers employees; as Video & film-related work -graphics and web design- contracting and home-photography-translation; But there are some kinds of professions that are not protected by law as sales delegates; lawyers and medical professionals; They are excluded from the definition of self-employed; The Act has several advantages; The most important of these is the need to write the contract; freelance are guaranteed the right to file a complaint and to lawsuit against an employer if he fails to pay for freelancer on time; & the right to freedom from exposure and discrimination by the employer, etc.
A question may arise as to how to resolve a potential dispute between an employer residing in a State; & the freelance resides in another State, it is the rules of international jurisdiction and what is known as the rules of attribution that determine the whole issue according to its facts and circumstances. If the jurisdiction of the employer is foreign legal, such as companies, associations, enterprises, etc.; It applies to transactions in which the law of the State in which such persons have taken the status of head of their administration; Unless it engages in its main activity in Qatar or does not have any actual principal status, Qatari law is applicable.
On the other hand, the form of the contract applies to the law of the country in which it was made; The law governing the contract may be applied in its substantive provisions; The National law or the Common of Contractors may also be applied. Coming soon will be a legal and legislative renaissance that will regulate this freelance in the form of laws and in explicit and clear texts that will protect the parties to the relationship from abuse by each other; Given the reach and expansion of this type of transaction throughout the world over the web.
Author: MR. MOHANAD BABIKER\ Senior Legal Consultant