Sunday, January 15, 2012

My experience as an independent contractor for the first month

of January 2011
January, 2011 is a challenging month for me. I have accepted a position which entails managing an
online office, and practicing my skills in technical writing, business research and human resource
management at a maximum level. It is a surprise that I still managed to accept contract drafting jobs and
contract analysis. In conclusion, I consider this month to be my most challenging and happiest to date.

I got to open my account in Skills Page and started to plug in a lot of my activities related to the skills I
specialize. For more details, please see my skills page at www.skillpages.com/christine.carpio-aldeguer.

For the most part, working online as an independent contract is not bad considering you get to work at
home with nothing to worry on other overhead expense such as transportation, clothing and make-up.
The efforts I have done for the month proved to be very productive.

Aside from having fun from the work that I experienced for this month, the excellent feedback from clients
provided a bonus for my self-esteem. This is without prejudice that my profile picture has been featured
as a homepage in Odesk, my official home for seeking international clients online. Anyway, I posted
this blog after so many attempts of thinking what kind of article I should post for the day. I guess this post
is a very special post. It is my way of zoning out for a while so that I can start writing articles for next
month.

Posted by Christine Aldeguer at 5:45 AM 2 comments:

Labels: independent contractor, Management theories

Monday, January 2, 2012

What is a Non-disclosure Agreement?

A non-disclosure agreement (also known as NDA) is an agreement entered between two contracting
parties namely: disclosing party and receiving party, who wish to share confidential information to each
other. The NDA as a legal document is being executed to prohibit the receiving party from divulging such
confidential information to any third person, otherwise, damages or any right of action may be claimed by
the disclosing party.

Non-disclosure agreements are utilized in employment contracts, independent contractorship

agreements, and business opportunity transactions, whereby the receiving party is authorized to receive
proprietary information from the disclosing party. Such proprietary information may include contact
information of clients, marketing plans and business plans which cannot be known to outside competitors,
trade secrets, marketing and business proposals, intellectual property or inventions that cannot be made
public in the meantime.

Executing a non-disclosure agreement is the modern trend so as to protect the interest of the disclosing
party from loss of revenues due to the disclosure or theft of proprietary or confidential information which
may be claimed by competitors or any interested persons.

The following are the usual items contained in a non-disclosure agreement:

The parties to the agreement, including their addresses or contact information;
Coverage of the confidential information that cannot be disclosed to third persons;
Information which is excluded from the coverage;
Obligations of the receiving party regarding the use of the confidential information ;
Circumstances where disclosure of confidential information is permitted (i.e. court order, or order
from the proper governmental agency);
The duration of the confidentiality, the law governing the confidentiality, and the venue of action in
case of breach.
Posted by Christine Aldeguer at 8:44 PM 2 comments:
Labels: best labor practices, commercial documents, commercial law, independent contractor

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Is there such a thing as Independent Contractors in the

Philippines?
There is such a thing as hiring independent contractors in the Philippines.
If you want to hire an independent contractor, make sure that no employer-employee relationship exists
between you and your potential employees. In determining the existence of an employer-employee
relationship, the following elements must be present: 1) selection and engagement of the employee; 2)
payment of wages; 3) power of dismissal; and 4) the power to control the employee's conduct. Of the
above, control of employee's conduct is commonly regarded as the most crucial and determinative
indicator of the presence or absence of an employer-employee relationship. Under the control test, an
employer-employee relationship exists where the person for whom the services are performed reserves
the right to control not only the end to be achieved, but also the manner and means to used in reaching
that end.

Providing guidelines on company policies does not necessarily mean that the employer has the power to
control employees conduct. In this regard, an independent contractorship agreement may still prosper if
issuance of company policies are merely done to apprise the contractor of company policies and
procedures, as long as the contractor is given the freedom to conduct its own operations. The periodic
reports that may be required by the company may only be necessary to update the company of the
contractors performance and business income.

Logically, the line should be drawn between rules that merely serve as guidelines towards the
achievement of the mutually desired result without dictating the means or methods to be employed in
attaining it, and those that control or fix the methodology and bind or restrict the party hired to the use of
such means. The first, which aim only to promote the result, create no employer-employee relationship
unlike the second, which address both the result and the means used to achieve it.

In other words, in determining whether a person who performs work for another is the latter's employee or
an independent contractor, the prevailing test is the "right of control" test.

References:

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA (PHILIPPINES), INC., vs. NLRC, G.R. No. 87098 November 4, 1996.
INSULAR LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY LTD., vs. NLRC et al., GR No. 84484, November 15, 1989.

COSMOPOLITAN FUNERAL HOMES, INC., vs. NOLI MAALAT and NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS
COMMISSION, G.R. No. 86693 July 2, 1990.