- DEFINITIONS
1.1. In these Terms and Conditions the following definitions apply:
“Tutor” means the person introduced by the Agency to the Client for an Engagement;
“Client” means the person to whom the introduction of a Tutor is made
“Agency” or “Agent” means Private Tutors Zimbabwe.
“Engagement” means the Client using a Tutor for tuition;
“Introduction” means the passing to the Client of Tutor Information;
- GENERAL
2.1. The request of a Tutor to be recommended to a Client shall form acceptance of these terms and conditions
2.2. No variation or alteration of these terms and conditions shall be valid unless approved in writing by the Agency.
2.3. If any part of these conditions is held to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable in any respect such invalidity, illegality or unenforceability shall not prejudice the effect of the rest of these conditions to the extent that they are valid, legal and enforceable.
2.4. This document containing the Terms and Conditions for the Tutor constitutes the Agency Contract between the Agency and the Tutor.
- AGENT RESPONSIBILITIES
3.1. The Agency will invoice the Client each month for tuition sessions to be conducted.
4. STATUS OF TUTORS
4.1. The Tutor is a self-employed tutor and nothing contained within this Agreement shall constitute the relationship of employer and employee and/or worker or a partnership between the Company and the Tutor. The Agency acts as an agent for the Tutor by introducing them to suitable Clients.
4.2. Once a tutoring position has been confirmed, you are entering into a contract between you (the Tutor) and the Client (the Student, or the Student’s parent/guardian).
4.3. The Terms of contract entered into by you with the Client shall be in the form provided by the Agency, save where expressly provided for in these Terms, the Tutor has no power or authority to increase, reduce, or vary the tuition as set out or referred to in these Terms or to alter or waive any of these Terms or to bind or commit the Company in any way.
5. TUTOR RESPONSIBILITIES
5.1 The Tutor agrees to invoice the Agency each month for tuition sessions having taken place in the previous month.
5.2 The Tutor agrees to invoice the Agency within 24 hours of the end of the month
5.3 The Tutor agrees that they are self-employed for taxation purposes and are not employees of the Agency
5.3 The Tutor must conduct all invoicing through the Agency of any Client introduced through the Agency
5.4 The Tutor agrees to irrevocably assign copyright of any content that is submitted to the Company for the purpose of publication on the Company website.
5.5. The Tutor should carry out the tutoring services in a professional manner with due skill, diligence and care.
5.6. The Tutor is responsible for the content of lessons. These are to be carried out with proper preparation in accordance with a particular course of study, and in accordance with the Client’s instructions and/or relevant exam syllabus.
5.7. Although the Agency has some teaching resources and may be able to support Tutors by providing suitable materials, Tutors should be aware that they are responsible for providing all reasonable teaching materials.
5.8. Tutors are responsible for keeping their time sheets up to date. This is a standard record of all lessons taught, which is to be signed by the Client after each lesson. If you are late in submitting these time sheets (see section 6 for details) or there is incorrect information on them, your payment may be delayed. If a Client disputes hours and the Tutor does not have a signed time sheet for the hours in question, we will be unlikely to be able to pay the Tutor for those hours.
5.9. If the Tutor ceases to work with the Agency during a course of tuition, or ceases to work with a particular Student, either at their own behest or the behest of the Client, and the Student is continuing with their course of tuition from the Agency, the Tutor will draft a final report. This report will describe the work that the Tutor has done with the Student, and the work that remains to be done. It will describe the Student’s areas of strength and areas of weakness. The aim of the report will be to enable a new Tutor to pick up where the old Tutor stopped.
5.10. Tutors are expected to be responsive when contacted by the Agency. If you persistently fail to respond to communication from the Agency (via email or telephone or both) then we reserve the right to remove you from our books.
5.11. We also reserve the right to remove you from our books for breaching this agreement in any way, including but not limited to breaching section 11 (truthfulness of information given to the Agency). In addition we reserve the right to remove you from our books due to unreasonable, inappropriate or rude behaviour such that we feel we are unable to act as your agent.
- INDEMNITY
6.1. The Agency shall not be liable under any circumstances for any loss, expense, damage, delay, costs or compensation, whether direct, indirect or consequential, which may be suffered or incurred by the Tutor arising from or in any way connected with the Agency seeking a Tutor for the Client or from the Introduction to or Engagement of any Tutor by the Client or from the failure of the Agency to introduce any Tutor.
6.2. The Agency does not exclude liability that is not permitted to be excluded by law, and in particular we do not exclude liability for death or personal injury arising from the Agency’s own negligence.
7. PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS
7.1. In consideration of the Agency providing you with Students, you are not permitted to make private arrangements for tuition with Clients introduced by the Agency or with new Client introduced by the Agency’s Clients. Should you breach this obligation, you will be liable to account to the Agency for all sums received by you from the Client/new Client without deduction and the Agency shall be entitled to obtain an injunction against you to prevent further breaches. This obligation shall continue notwithstanding termination or completion or other discharge of this Agreement.
7.2. Any work referred to a Tutor by a Client of the Agency must be billed through the Agency on your behalf. The Agency is willing to negotiate on commission for new Clients referred to you by our Clients but the Agency must process the billing and bookings must be through the Agency.
7.3. The Tutor will not provide or agree to provide any services or carry out any work for the Client or the Student other than the Tuition, save with the prior consent of the Agency.
8. PAYMENT
8.1. The Agency will agree the fee structure with the Client and this may not be changed by the Tutor or the Client without written authority of The Agency.
8.2. The Agency collects fees due from Students/Clients and passes them on to you, net of a commission. Payments will only be made after payment has been received from the Client.
8.3. You will not be paid directly by the Client. You will not be entitled to receive your fee until The Agency has received payment from the Client. If The Agency does not receive payment in reasonable time, Tutors may obtain written permission from The Agency to invoice the Client directly.
8.4. You must not accept any payment direct from the Client without written permission from The Agency. Should you do so, all sums received by you will be immediately payable to The Agency and shall be actionable through the Courts without further notice to you.
8.5. Completed and signed time sheets must be submitted to The Agency monthly, after your last tuition session of the month or in any event by 4pm on the first day of the following month, for the lessons during that month (e.g. on or by 1 April at 4pm for lessons during March). Payment will be made to you within 7 days after submission of timesheets.
8.6. If you submit your timesheets later than 7 days after the end of the month, you will be paid at the next payment period.
9. AGENCY FEES
9.1. The Tutor agrees that in exchange for the Agent’s services, as specified elsewhere herein, the Agent shall charge the Tutor ‘agency fees’, which agency fee will be deducted from any monies received and held by the Agent from Clients in respect of tutored lessons conducted by the Principal, prior to release of earned fees to the Principal.
9.2. The percentage of agency fees charged per tutored lesson may vary from one project to the next, depending on the precise Lesson Package purchased by the Client. For ease of reference, the Tutor shall receive the net ‘tutor pay’ amount advertised to such Tutor in relation to the particular tutored lesson, such amount having already had the agency fee deduction applied. For example: If a tutored lesson is advertised to the Tutor as having an hourly tutor pay of $10/hour, then this full amount of $10/hour will have already been calculated net of agency fees and will be paid to the Tutor in its entirety.
10. CANCELLATION POLICY
10.1. The Tutor will provide to the Client notice of any proposed holiday dates and request the same from the Client, in order to schedule lessons at a convenient time for both parties. The Tutor must notify the Agency of the schedule agreed.
10.2. In the event of cancellation of a scheduled lesson, the Agency must be informed and an alternative date will be agreed between Client and Tutor. The notification of the Agency of the cancellation and alternative Session date will speed up administration and prevent delays to your payment.
10.3. Tutors should be aware that Clients must give notice of cancellation of any session more than five hours before the session is due to begin. If notice is given by that time, there is no charge to rearrange the session, and the Tutor is not paid for a session that has not been taught.
10.4. If notice is given within five hours of the start time of the session, there are two options. If the Tutor views the reason for cancellation as being unavoidable, and they choose not to charge for the session, then the Agency will not charge the Client for the Session on behalf of the Tutor. If the Tutor does not deem the reason for cancellation to be unavoidable, or requires payment nonetheless, the Agency will charge the Client for the Session on behalf of the Tutor and will pass on the Tutor’s fees net of commission as usual.
10. CONFIDENTIALITY
10.1. The Tutor undertakes that they will not at any time during or after the conclusion of this agreement, disclose to any person any confidential information concerning the business, affairs, customers, clients or suppliers of the Agency, except that you may disclose the Agency’s confidential information as may be required by law, court order, or any governmental or regulatory authority.
10.2. The Tutor undertakes not to make use of confidential information encountered through association with the Agency for any purpose other than to perform your obligations under this Agreement.
11. FREEDOM OF SELECTION OF TUTORING PROJECTS:
It is expressly noted that the Tutor is free to select and apply for such tutoring projects which it deems suitable and is in no way bound to apply for tutoring projects referred if such projects are deemed to be unsuitable due to the advertised fee amounts or lesson scheduling.
12. DATA PROTECTION
12.1. The Agency uses tutor data for the purposes of the services that it provides. Tutors providing personal data consent to the use of that data by the Agency for the purpose of effecting introductions to Clients, for billing and fee collection purposes and to enable the Agency to contact the Tutor from time to time. If you would like additional information, we encourage you to read our Privacy Policy on our website.
13. TRUTHFULNESS AND ACCURACY
13.1. The Tutor warrants and represents to the Agency that all written and oral statements and information provided by the Tutor to the Agency for the purpose of or in connection with the Tuition, including (but not limited to) personal information about the Tutor and/or your qualifications, credentials, references and suitability for providing the Tuition were when provided, and remain, true, complete and accurate.
14. NO GUARANTEE OF CONTINUED ENGAGEMENT
The Tutor understands that this Contract is not a guarantee of continued engagement as an Independent Contractor with the Agent and that such engagement is terminable at any time by the Agent or the Tutor, with or without cause.
15. NO GUARANTEE OF TUTORING PROJECTS
The Agent shall endeavour to advertise specific tutoring project opportunities to the Tutor, in accordance with its systems and policies, it being expressly agreed that the Tutor may not make any claim or demand upon the Agent for the provision of tutoring projects. In particular, the Tutor acknowledges that, among other factors, Client discretion ultimately dictates which Tutor is finally chosen to render their services to the Client.
16. LAW
16.1. These Terms and Conditions and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with it or its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of Zimbabwe.
16.2. Each party irrevocably agrees that the courts of Zimbabwe shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with this agreement or its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims)
Tutor Code of Conduct
It is a requirement of membership for individual tutors that they adhere to the following Code of ethics. Contents of this Code of Conduct are meant to align every Tutor with our ethical standards and to ensure that his/her service to Clients rendered professionally and in utmost good faith. In this regard, the Tutor pledges:
- To encourage and enable learners to achieve their unique potential as independent learners through acknowledgement, encouragement, understanding, and personalised attention.
- To be flexible in his/her approach to tutoring and to assist learners in discovering effective learning strategies.
- To keep up-to-date with advances in subject knowledge and pedagogy.
- To comply with the UN Child Protection Policy.
- To keep his/her relationship to learners strictly professional and not personal and to understand that he/she has a duty of care towards them.
- To keep information about the learner whom he/she is assigned confidential, unless doing so would be to result in injury or harm being done to them.
- To show respect for pupils’ cultural background, personal dignity and values.
- To maintain accurate records of tutoring sessions as expected and required.
- To be careful to avoid creating any unhealthy dependencies by suggesting a need for tutoring where no such need exists; reporting in a manner that explicitly or implicitly suggests a need for further on-going tutoring or engaging in any practice that undermines the independent learning of students.
- Not to engage in sexual or immoral relationship with any client or anyone related to a client during and beyond engagement with the Client.
- Not to be involved in any form of financial relationship with a client such as (but no limited to) borrowing money or loaning cash.
- To offer the best tutoring service to learners without demonstrating any form of incompetence or lethargy.
- To adhere to the Terms and conditions set up by Private Tutors Zimbabwe and to refrain from any conduct that contradicts the same.