Thanks for all the great ideas everyone. It'll put me in a better
position to negotiate. They asked what my salary expectations were and I
think I've underestimated my worth (after having only just seen the
Techwriter salary survey) - I'm a newbie at this.
Dave
On 3/09/2015 1:37 PM, Rhonda Bracey wrote:
Further to this, my insurance broker said the statutory limit within which a client could come after you was SEVEN years after you last paid the policy!! My current client doesn’t require it and as I’ve now been working for them for 8 years, thus past the limit for any previous policy/client, I killed off my PI policy a few years ago. It was costing some $5K a year and going up.
Rhonda
Rhonda.bracey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:Rhonda.bracey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Website: http://cybertext.com.au
Blog: http://cybertext.wordpress.com
*From:*austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Terry Dowling
*Sent:* Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:34 AM
*To:* austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* atw: Re: Anyone ever "worked" for a recruitment company? - PI
In my experience Stuart is never wrong, but there is more to it than might appear.
Yes, lots of government agencies have ‘required’ PI insurance, but I’ve always managed to convince them it was a waste of money and they got a cheaper rate without me (and them) having to fork out for it. This has included jobs in GESB, Westrail, Alinta, DBNGP and Water Corp – amongst others. The main reason I was able to convince them was because, 8–15 years ago, the PI policies were around $5k per year (for $5M cover), and – in theory – you need to *maintain the policy for five years after the contract finishes* to maintain cover for the period of liability. Yes, it’s “only” $3/hour for one year, but for six years’ coverage to do a one-year contract, it would be more like $20/hour.
My view – argue the point that it’s not necessary. ;-) I’ve never needed it for writing work. Use Stuart’s arguments from below.
Obviously, if you are the person signing-off technical content, you need it.
Cheers,
Terry
*From:*Stuart Burnfield
Logically, PI insurance for TWs makes little sense. I haven't heard that it's ever been paid out and can't imagine that it ever would be.
But some clients, especially government agencies, require it. If you have these insurances, you can potentially work for them. Other TWs who choose not to pay for PI insurance can't. So just think of it as a cost of doing business, like bribing the Grand Vizier. If you can get additional work or better work by having PI insurance, maybe it's worth it. If you can get plenty of work without it, maybe it's not.
Stuart
