[foundation-board] Panton Fellowships operations - RFC

Thu Jan 5 20:06:33 UTC 2012

On various threads:

On 5 Jan 2012, at 18:31, Ben Laurie wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 6:29 PM, Laura James <laura.james at okfn.org> wrote:
>> To Ben's point: if it comes down to whether the fellow has other
>> employment or not, would it be any reassurance if we required a letter
>> confirming the Fellow's employment from the employing institution?
> 
> I don't claim to know what's needed, but I do know its a problem. I
> suspect we should ask someone who does know :-)

I think we are going off piste here.  This role seems just to be a contractor versus an employee, and it doesn't really matter  what they get up to outside of their contract except in very limited circumstances (such as for conflict of interest or acts that damage the reputation of the OKFN).  I don't think we should be receiving letters about their employment elsewhere.

On 5 Jan 2012, at 18:29, Laura James wrote:

> On 5 January 2012 15:49, Becky Hogge <becky.hogge at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sucuEeNBaPsR5G_piK-518o_AWanX1jxTkpM3j7KZ8M/edit
>> -point 18) "The OKFN is strongly committed to equal opportunities." -
>> what activities do we have to undertake to live up to this statement?
> 
> We are bound by the Equality Act 2012 in recruitment in any case (
> http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/advice-and-guidance/guidance-for-employers/
> ).

Please keep in mind that this is not a contract for employment so guidance on the Equality Act  2010 for employers would not be relevant here.

> Various emails on "not employment" clauses

These clauses are a factor but not definitive and thus are a good idea.  Generally Employment Tribunals, the HMRC, etc, will look behind the contract as to the various factors that they've established as to divide people between the "employee" and "contractor" columns, such as supply of equipment to do the role, place of performance of the work, direction as to how the work is done, etc.  

The risks for a "Fellow" don't seem any different than our other contractors so I think this discussion is a bit moot on this list.

Being someone's sole source of income is not definitive of employment though could be a factor.  I don't think we can or should stipulate that they have other income.

On 3 Jan 2012, at 11:14, Laura James wrote:

> As fellowships are a new endeavour for us, and with
> "fellowship" a potentially loaded term, we wanted to run the
> operational documents past the board (and particularly Jordan) in case
> there are any red flags.

I don't personally see an issue with the word "fellow" though there certainly may be issues that I'm not aware of.  As you've noted Laura, there may be an exclusion for "Fellowships" as taxable income on the part of the fellow.  This is the fellow's responsibility IMO, however it might be worthwhile for someone to ask a tax expert if there is anything we can do in our contracts, in the structure of the fellowship, etc, to make sure that they can take advantage of any tax savings they may have.  Otherwise I should think we would ask them to sign up to our standard contractor agreement.

On 3 Jan 2012, at 11:14, Laura James wrote:

> Panton Fellowships agreement:
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sucuEeNBaPsR5G_piK-518o_AWanX1jxTkpM3j7KZ8M/edit

I hope that this is just an outline of the fellowship and not the actual agreement we'd ask fellows to sign once accepting a fellowship.  This isn't a full set of legal terms, and I'd expect we'd use something like our normal contractors agreement.

Specific comments on the text:
========
I would change paragraph 16 to be a bit clearer as to avoiding any implication of age discrimination:

Change:

"However, those with non-traditional backgrounds are encouraged to apply."
to
"Those with non-traditional backgrounds are encouraged to apply."

At Paragraph 19, change:

"Holding a Panton Fellowship shall not prevent you from accepting funding from other bodies, or seeking employment."

to 

"Panton Fellows may accept funding from other bodies, and seek or engage in other employment or business interests. "
=========

Thanks

Jordan

On 3 Jan 2012, at 13:16, Laura James wrote:

> Many apologies - I meant OSI not shuttleworth. Please write this off
> as first day of year confusion.
> 
> On the question of the OSI intent, we are certainly doing what we said
> we'd do in the grant application, but I haven't seen a formal funding
> agreement.  Rufus - any ideas where this might be?  Doesn't seem to be
> in google docs or dropbox.
> 
> 
> On 3 January 2012 11:53, Ben Laurie <ben at links.org> wrote:
>> On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 11:14 AM, Laura James <laura.james at okfn.org> wrote:
> 
>> a) The agreement doesn't seem to say they need to follow the
>> principles themselves, which seems a little odd.
> 
> Good point, I'll get that added in :)
> 
>> b) "This is not employment" - is that sufficient to avoid tax
>> liability (particularly PAYE)? Have we checked?
> 
> This is a somewhat opaque area, but some relevant material is included
> below. Since we are not asking for services (although clause 11 in the
> agreement could perhaps be read as such), and this is a grant/award to
> researchers, in the mould of similar schemes, I feel this we are OK
> and exempt from PAYE etc in this case, but if you'd like me to dig
> into this further I can.
> 
> Laura
> Laura
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM06250.htm
> 
> EIM06250 - Employment income: scholarship income: miscellaneous
> awards: research awards or fellowships
> 
> Section 776 IT(TOI)A 2005 (Section 331 ICTA 1988)
> Research awards or fellowships are sometimes offered to qualified
> individuals, who have normally completed their post-graduate training,
> to enable them to undertake a specific research project over a fixed
> period.... Whether payments made to the holder of the award or
> fellowship are chargeable to tax will depend on the particular facts.
> There is unlikely to be a contract of employment. If the holder of the
> award is engaged under an enforceable contract to provide services,
> for example, to research a particular project, in return for a fee any
> liability to tax will be under the Miscellaneous Income rules (see
> BIM65151).
> 
> 
> http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/BIM65155.htm
> 
> BIM65155 - Research grants and fellowships: British Academy
> As a result of discussions with the British Academy, the Board have
> agreed that in general, awards and grants are not taxable. Where,
> however, such awards are received in the course of the beneficiary's
> profession or vocation, advice should be obtained from Business Tax
> (Technical). As regards other awards see SE06200 and following, and
> BIM50710.
> 
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____
Mr. Jordan S Hatcher, JD, LLM

More at: <http://www.jordanhatcher.com>
Co-founder:  <http://www.opendatacommons.org>
Open Knowledge: <http://www.okfn.org/>