Tutor’s Terms and Conditions
25 September 2023 2023-11-08 19:43Tutor’s Terms and Conditions
Seal Tutors Limited tutoring agreement
These Tutor Terms and Conditions govern Your use of the Site and the ST Services.
You accept these Tutor Terms in full by using the Site and the ST Services. ST retains the right to amend the terms of these Tutor Terms (or any part of them) at any time by providing You with at least 3 days’ prior notice.
If you do not desire to accept the updated conditions and prefer to terminate this Agreement with ST, please notify us within the 3-day notice period. We are entitled to presume that you have accepted any modifications if you continue to provide Tutoring Services through the Site during this notice period.
Before using the Site and ST Services, please read these terms carefully and ensure that You understand their implications.
Do not use the Site or the ST Services if You disagree with any element of the Tutor Terms.
Contractor Agreement for Tutors by Seal Tutors, Ltd.
The following provisions are understood and agreed upon by Seal Tutors LTD (ST) and you (Tutor) in relation to any agreement you enter into, following an introduction by ST, with the student or the student’s parent/guardian (as applicable, the Client) to provide tutoring services to the student (Services):
Once a tutoring booking has been confirmed, you (as the Tutor) enter into an agreement with the Client. ST serves as an intermediary between the Tutor and the Client. ST is only responsible for matching each pupil with a suitable Tutor for the specific subject, dates, and times requested or agreed upon by the Client; it is not responsible for the lesson content or teaching methods. ST operates as an employment agency. You (as the educator) have been contracted to provide services through a Personal Service Company (PSC).
Offerings to Clients
In delivering the Services, you shall use your best endeavors to promote the interests of ST, unless prevented by ill health or accident, and shall carry out the provisions of the agreed Services.
If you are unable to perform the Services due to illness or injury, you must notify the Company as soon as is practicable and provide us with any proof we may request.
We will not continue to pay you your fee. For the avoidance of doubt, you will not be compensated for any period in which you do not perform the Services.
You shall ensure that you are always available, upon reasonable notice, to provide the Company with any assistance or information it may require.
Hardware, Tools, and Equipment
The Company will provide the means to conduct lessons, communicate with students, and access certain free materials on the shared drive. The tutor should not consider any ST property to be his or her own, and all such property must be returned upon agreement termination. This may include any documents, literature, or other materials, but is not limited to them.
Payment
The rate for Tutors ranges from £20 to £139 and is subject to change at any time. The tutor can set their own hourly rate. For fixed duties or course lessons, we will always inform you of the proposed rate for any assignment, allowing you to approve or decline the position. Every hourly session will incur a 33 percent commission fee. ST reserves the right to increase or decrease the commission at any time with 3 day’s notice, but will make every effort to notify tutors as soon as possible. This may be subject to change at the discretion of ST.
ST calculates your monthly invoices automatically at the conclusion of each month. ST will then pay you (as the tutor) on the tenth of every month for such invoices. You should not and are strictly prohibited from taking direct payments from clients. Any such action will result in your removal from the platform. To facilitate our role of matching students with appropriate Tutors and maintaining and monitoring that appropriateness, you agree, by entering into this agreement, not to discuss the rate with the Client or accept any payment from the Client in addition to or in lieu of the rate notified to you by us, and to refer such discussions directly to us.
You will be compensated for all hours performed in accordance with the booking confirmation for each role, regardless of whether the client pays us or not. Certain positions have a maximum number of tutoring hours, which will be specified when the reservation is made. If the Tutor exceeds this number of hours, they will not be compensated for the additional hours.
Different Activities
You may engage in any other business, trade, profession, or activity that does not place you in a conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest with that of ST. However, unless you are a freelance tutor, you may not be involved in any capacity with a business that competes with the business of ST without the prior written consent of a Director of ST.
Your Status with Us
You are an independent contractor; nothing in this agreement makes you an employee, worker, agent, or partner of ST, and you must not represent yourself as such. ST is not obliged to provide any work to any tutor but will endeavour to maximise the work of every tutor on our platform through the services we have currently.
You shall be wholly liable for and indemnify the company for any liability, assessment, or claim resulting from:
(a) any taxation whatsoever deriving from or imposed in connection with the performance of the Services, unless prohibited by law;
(b) any employment-related claim or any claim based on worker status brought by you or any substitute against the Company arising out of or in connection with the provision of the Services.
ST may satisfy this indemnity (in full or in part) by deducting the amount from any payment due to you.
Security & Safety
ST will ask each client if they are aware of any health and safety concerns regarding in-person or online tutoring and will inform the tutor of any concerns prior to securing the role. While on the Company’s or Client’s premises, you must comply in every way with all applicable statutory requirements regarding Health & Safety, Security, and the Environment.
Child Protection Policy and DBS Checks
Although tutors are not required by law to undertake DBS checks, it is in their best interest to do so, and ST will prioritise work with tutors who have a recent (within the last three years) Enhanced DBS check. This is the required level of disclosure for professions involving the care of minors and vulnerable individuals.
If you have any concerns regarding a student’s safety, please report them to the ST Safeguarding Team at safeguarding@sealtutors.co.uk.
Reporting
You agree to complete lesson reports to the standard expected by parents within twenty-four hours of the lesson’s conclusion.
Holidays, Vacations, and Expenses
As detailed in your Key Information Document, tutors are contracted for their services and are therefore not eligible for holiday and expense pay.
Cancellation and customer departure policy
The client must provide a 24-hour notice to the tutor (or ST during business hours) in order to terminate or reschedule a session without incurring a fee. A client may promptly terminate a contract if they so choose. If a tutor wishes to terminate a contract, they must give ST seven days’ notice.
Damages
ST does not assume liability for any claims made by the client deriving from or relating to the tutoring provided by you, and you agree to indemnify ST in full for any such claims.
Insurance coverage
As a tutor working independently, you are not covered by ST’s insurance. Contact the Tutors’ Association for assistance and advice regarding insurance arrangements.
Providing Contact Information to ST
By consenting to these terms and conditions, you consent to ST contacting you via text, email, landline, or WhatsApp to inform you of new job openings more rapidly.
Confidential Information and Business Assets
You shall not use or disclose to any person, either during the term of your agreement with the Company or at any time thereafter, any confidential information about the business or affairs of the Company or any of its business contacts, or about any other matters which may come to your attention in the course of providing the Services, including payment rates, terms, and other arrangements. Confidential information, for the purposes of this clause 6, refers to any non-public information or matter relating to the affairs of the Company or any of its business contacts.
The restriction outlined in the preceding clause is not applicable.
(a) any authorised use or disclosure by the Company or as required by law; or
(b) any information that is already in the public domain or that enters the public domain without your disclosure.
The Company retains ownership of all documents, manuals, hardware, and software provided for your use, as well as any data or documents (including copies) produced, maintained, or stored on the Company’s computer systems or other electronic equipment (including mobile phones if provided by the Company).
Industrial and Intellectual Property
You hereby assign to ST all existing and future intellectual property rights (including, without limitation, patents, copyrights, and related rights) and inventions arising from the Services for ST. You agree to promptly execute all documents and perform all acts deemed necessary by ST to give effect to this clause. All work performed for ST and all items produced in connection with the provision of the Services, including applications, training materials, and documentation, shall at all times remain the property of the Company.
Contract Termination
The Company may terminate this agreement at any time with immediate effect and without further liability to you (except for any accrued fees or expenses as of the date of termination) if:
(a) if you are in material breach of any of the terms of this agreement; or
(b) other than due to illness or accident, you willfully fail to provide or remedy any default in providing the Services following written notice.
Any delay by ST in exercising its termination rights does not constitute a waiver of those rights.
Compulsory Action Upon Termination
Any ST property in your possession and any original or copy documents obtained by you in the course of providing the Services must be returned to a Director of ST upon request and prior to the termination of this agreement. You also agree to delete irretrievably any information pertaining to ST’s business that is stored on any magnetic or optical disc or memory, as well as any matter derived from such sources that is in your possession or under your control outside the Company’s premises.
Restricted access
To protect ST’s interest in its goodwill and relationships, you agree and undertake the following:
You shall not, prior to the termination of this agreement, directly or indirectly approach, canvass, solicit, or otherwise attempt to entice away from ST the custom of any person who is a customer, client (tutor, parent, guardian, or student) of, or supplier to ST, and you shall not use your knowledge of or influence over any such customer, client, or supplier to or for your own benefit or for the benefit of any other person.
You shall not, for a period of 12 months following the termination of this agreement, directly or indirectly approach, canvass, solicit, or otherwise attempt to entice away from ST the custom of any person or company who, at any time during the 12 months immediately preceding the termination of this agreement, was a customer, client, or supplier of the Company and with whom you had personal dealings.
You shall not, for a period of 12 months following the termination of this agreement, either on your own behalf or for any other person, directly or indirectly, and whether solicited by you or not, supply any goods or services to any person or company who, at any time during the 12 months preceding the termination of this agreement, was a customer or client of, or supplier to, the Company and with whom you shall have had personal dealings.
Each paragraph of this section imposes a completely distinct and separate restriction on you. In the event that any of these paragraphs is deemed invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable in any way, that paragraph shall be severed from this section and the remaining paragraphs shall remain unaffected.
Difference and Third-Party Rights
Only a document signed by both the Tutor and ST may modify this agreement.
In the event that such changes have a material impact on the cost or time required to perform the Services, the parties shall negotiate in good faith a reasonable and equitable adjustment to the applicable fees and schedule, as applicable.
This agreement is not subject to the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act of 1999, and only the Tutor and ST shall have rights under it. The terms of this agreement or any of them may be varied, amended, or modified, or this agreement may be suspended, cancelled, or terminated (in each case, without the consent of any third party), or this agreement may be rescinded.
Data Security
The Company collects and processes certain categories of information about you in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act. Please refer to the Company’s Privacy Notice for Contractors, which is appended to this document, for more information on the categories of data processed and the purposes for processing.
When you process data on behalf of the Company as part of the provision of your services, you are functioning as a data processor. You are aware of your responsibilities under the General Data Protection Regulation and have implemented the necessary technical and organisational safeguards to ensure that data is processed in accordance with these responsibilities.
Notices
Any notice given pursuant to this agreement must be in writing, signed by or on behalf of the party giving it, and delivered by hand, registered mail, or email to the relevant party (in the case of ST) at its registered office for the time being and (in the case of the Tutor) at his or her last known address.
Any such notice shall be presumed received when:
(a) if personally delivered, at the time of delivery;
(b) 48 hours after the date of posting for registered mail; and
(c) in the case of email, at the moment of transmission.
It is sufficient to show that the envelope containing the notice was addressed to the relevant party’s address and delivered either to that address or into the custody of the postal authorities for pre-paid recorded delivery or registered mail in order to establish service.
Comprehensive Agreement and Prior Contracts
Each party acknowledges and agrees on its own behalf with the other party that:
(a) this agreement together with any documents referred to in it constitutes the entire agreement and understanding between the Tutor and ST and supersedes any previous agreement between them;
b) Neither party relied on any pre-contractual statement when entering into this agreement.
However, nothing in this agreement is intended to limit or exclude liability for fraud.
Identical counterparts
This agreement may be executed in any number of counterparts, each of which, when executed, shall be an original, and all counterparts shall comprise a single and identical instrument.
Legal System and Jurisdiction
This agreement, as well as any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with it, its subject matter, or formation (including extra-contractual disputes or claims), shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law.
The parties irrevocably agree that the English and Welsh courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction to resolve any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with this agreement or its subject matter or formulation (including extracontractual disputes or claims).
Standards of Conduct
You commit to following ST’s CoC ” when interacting with students or parents who have been introduced to you by ST:
Being courteous, arriving on time, and presenting yourself professionally.
