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Re: Freelance contract

Brook:

You asked about Time Inc paying medical benefits to a freelancer. The company has different categories of temporary employees (these are people who physically come in every day). At one point, virtually everyone who was going to work for more than three months was put in the category where they were entitled to medical insurance, paid holidays, etc. It was WONDERFUL. Now, however, it is difficult, if not impossible, for temporary workers to get any kind of benefits, at least at the magazine I worked for.

While we're on this subject, perhaps one of the lawyers or other legal eagles can clarify something that's been confusing me for several years. Some big corporations have been sued by the government (the labor department, I think) for keeping temporary employees on indefinitely. At Time-Warner, which  signed some kind of agreement with the government, you have to leave a temporary position for at least a few weeks after six months of employment. (You then return, and the clock starts ticking again.) The company that made me work for a temp agency (see below) did so out of fear of having to make me a permanent employee. But I don't get it--people work as temps for the New York Times for years (and we're talking decades) without any government body getting upset. Similarly, many, many other places of employment for writers (such as the various university journalism departments in New York that depend on adjuncts for their survival) seem to have no qualms about creating a permanent underclass. If there is a law--a Labor Department regulation?--it's certainly enforced erratically. And why would it be legal for a corporation to skirt the law by forcing you to sign on with a temp agency?

Nancy Stedman, NYC

At 02:57 PM 1/20/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>I think what you're not grasping is the feeling among writers that they are losing ground--making less money for the same amount of work as the years go on. <


Nan, I'm fully aware of that problem. I've been a fulltime freelancer since 1980. That's all I do---along with associated work, such as my email corresponence course in how to freelance.

And, like you, gardening is only one of the things I write about---and certainly not the most lucrative. I'll write about any subject for anyone prepared to cut a check in the right amount. To me, the pinacle of English prose is found in the words, "pay to the order of."

But you have to choose your battles. And I don't think this contract is the place to fight. That Boston group just spent how many years in a futile effort? And ticked off their markets in the process. So what did they gain out of it? I don't know the parties involved, but I'd be willing to bet they never sell another word to the Boston Globe.

I don't know what the average per word payments were, then or now. I never pay attention to that, because the only meaningful measurement is time. That $350 column I mentioned was a better media than any mainstream magazine precisely because of the hourly rate. If I could get that steady I'd probably only work two days a week. :-)

I'm very glad you were able to crack Reader's Digest, Time Inc, etc. But the fact is they do not represent typical freelance markets, either. To say that the second rights markets have dried up, and then cite non-typical markets overstates the case. In an average year about 1/3 my income comes from resales and shorts & fillers. If anything, this is a slightly higher percentage than when I first started, because I didn't realize, at first, how much money can be made reselling the same stories.

I'm curious, too, about the logistics of Time providing medical coverage to a freelancer. How did that work?

At any rate, as I said repeatedly, every writer has to make his/her own business decisions. For me, well, I just can't get excited about giving up rights that weren't important in the first place---such as granting electronic rights to a newspaper so it can post on its own webpage.

Finally, I do not have the knee-jerk reaction that many writers and photographers do to the words "work for hire." If the check is big enough, they can own it, and I'll go on to another project.


Brook



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