Employment+Issues

=Employment Issues in the Arts=

As emerging arts-workers, project work will become familiar. Many of you will become expert at creating quotes, working to contracts and managing projects. Some projects will last for two days, two weeks or two years. You will need to learn how to ensure that your work is within the **scope** of the contract, as well as developing the skills to manage your project. In this section we will look at

Contract-of-service
This means that you are engaged to work for another person as an employee (part-time, full-time or casual / fixed-term or tenured). Under this model of engagement, the **employer** is responsible for
 * paying wages
 * ensuring that the tax liability is paid
 * worker's compensation
 * worker's tools & equipment (in order to carry out the service)

Contract-for-services
This means that you are engaged as a contractor. It is for a specific task to be completed within a specific time-frame. Under this model of engagment, the employee or contractor is responsible for
 * retaining & payment tax
 * professional insurance
 * providing their own tools & equipment
 * (generally) the right to sub-contract & delegate.

There are more detailed explanations of both of these categories here and here.

2) Contract - components & scope
There are four components to a contract
 * offer
 * acceptance
 * consideration
 * intention to create a legal relationship

Consider some examples of contracts in your everyday life. Have a look at the example from the Arts Law Centre of Australia - Artists-in-the-Black comic from here. Can you identify the components of the contract. Do you think the artist has grounds for legal action?

Have a look at some sample visual arts contracts here - here and here

3) Managing your project
An important part of managing your project is making sure at the contract negotiation stage that you -
 * ensure that you are appropriately skilled to fulfil the contract
 * ensure that you are appropriately resourced to fulfil the contract
 * ensure that you are able to deliver on the scope of the contract

High level project management requires a special set of skills & training. As emerging arts workers, you should attempt to develop some of these skills through professional development. Some of the skills & resources are found below -


 * Time Management - Most contracts have timeframes //(what to be delivered by when)//, so you're legally bound to complete your project, and possibly stages of the project at particular times. Keeping check on times is important. You might like to use a Gantt chart to assist you.
 * Budgets - Its important that you are able to manage your budget //(what to be delivered by when for how much)//. There are many software packages that assist you to do this.