Policy: Legal-financial aspects of work contracts
Legal aspects
Practically every individual associated with Future Worlds Center has to comply with the organization's principle of independence. The organization considers its associates as committing their full time and effort to their projects; however, from the legal point of view, they are independent contractees.
Since our associates considered as contractees and not employees, they are responsible for their benefits. They are encouraged to register as self-employed and arrange to pay their own personal social insurance and other related taxes, as the organization is not obliged to cover those costs for associates (who are not employees).
Each individual receiving income from the organization should sign and possess copy of the following work related documents:
- Nondisclosure Agreement
- Honour Declaration
- Confidentiality Agreement
- Gentlemen's' Agreement: considered as a welcoming letter referring to a minimum monthly payment without contractual bond
- Employee/Service Agreement: specific project-task related contract
Financial Aspects
Productive Hours
The definition of productive hours (time) of an associates may vary from contract to contract due to the different personnel cost approaches applied by funding organizations such as in European Commission programs.
Personnel cost based on Man-month
In case of projects defining staff involvement as certain man-month, every hour reported by the Employee/Service Agreement (self-employed individual) is considered as productive hours, therefore is subject to payment in compliance with the Employee/Service Agreement.
Personnel cost based on % of time
In case of projects that define staff involvement as a certain percentage (%) of a full time assignment (e.g., projects funded by the Europeaid Program), Future Worlds Center considers an associate as full time, if the following criteria are met:
- The associate devotes a minimum of 1,680 hours per annum to his/her task, i.e., average 140 hours per month and
- The fluctuation of the monthly productive hours during a calendar year does not exceed the 30% of the average monthly hours stated above.
In extraordinary situations in which an associate is constrained in delivering his/her tasks due to unexpected obstacles, and the monthly productive hours fall below the 30% of the expected average for more than 3 consecutive months, Future Worlds Center has the right to terminate the contract.
The above principles must be implemented in case of pro-rata calculation.
Rates
Due to the fact that Future Worlds Center associates are self-employed and directly hired to implement specific project tasks, the rates budgeted in the corresponding Grant Agreement with the funding organization for which they are hired is used for calculation of their remuneration.
Monthly payment
In order to release project payments (typically on a monthly basis), every associate has to submit timesheet showing the actual hours spent on each and every project (or project task) in which s/he is involved. The payment is calculated based on the information of the the submitted timesheet taken into account the rate and the definition of the productive hours set in the Employee/Service Agreement. Release of project payments on account can take place upon the request of the associate, but the circumstances must be recorded on the Contract Amendment.
