Slave Work: What Are The Risks From A Freelancer?

May 14 in Russia are celebrating the Day freelancer. Freedom of creation or the beginning of a new slavery - what are the prospects for such a specialist?

May 14 in Russia are celebrating the Day freelancer. It can be called a symbol of free creativity. For freelancers there are no national boundaries. However, the bright future of such specialists clouds "work in the clouds" - Cloudworking.

Let us look to the future

2020. Single, with poor health and not seeing daylight freelancer talks about the difficulties of his work. His profession is now called Cloudworker. Specialty - a software developer. For orders he has to fight with his only friends, they are the same - the virtual enemies, as claimed by his work.

Blame the major concerns that gave rise to a new stage of enslavement of the workers. Instead of permanent staff are increasingly began to use the services of freelancers, placing their orders online. And those, in turn, hurrying to beat the competition, began to carry out the work for meager sums. Instead of 8,000 euros for the project began to receive 300 programmer.

So bleak prospects imagine a German trade union Ver.di freelancers in the video. And there are no collective agreements, the right to leave, employer social security contributions, a good pension, - all this poor freelancer deprived forever. However, on this sour note interrupts the narrative, and the voice-over says that all of this can still be prevented.

The yield on the German market:

Freelancing as a form of employment has both fans and ardent critics. The World Wide Web for freelancers do not respect national boundaries. Mark decides to qualification. "Personality and business idea," - adds Karin Muller (Karin Müller). The representative of German unification Freelancer International said that a member of this alliance could be anyone. Today, about 10 percent of its participants - freelancers from abroad. There is also a web designer from Ukraine.


The yield on the German and, of course, the global market for web designers offers a platform 99designs.de, the largest online marketplace for graphic design professionals. This platform connects customers with the performer. And here I must say, the video part of the German trade union becomes a reality. The company places its order and received offers from several designers, and then chooses a winner.

One of the main conditions for a freelancer in Germany - the existence of a business plan. "Everyone who is in our association must submit its business model to share their knowledge and skills" - says Karin Mueller. Annual membership Freelancer International costs 84 euros and 30 euros - an initial payment. 

Slave Work: What Are The Risks From A Freelancer?

It provides a network of contacts, which greatly facilitates the life of a freelancer. "For example, if you need to create your own page on the Internet, you can seek the advice of our experts, which will help to take into account all the requirements of the German market", - said the representative Freelancer International.

Where does free work:

Before the gloomy scenario of trade union Ver.di has obviously far. At least the major concerns are in no hurry to move the services of freelancers. When in 2012 the American concern IBM announced large-scale job cuts and their desire to attract more outside developers, the public was outraged. IBM had to partially change their plans. More followers of his original idea and was not found.

But for small and medium-sized businesses are increasingly becoming a freelancer lifesaver. Besides notes Karin Mueller, a freelancer for many - still a transitional stage on the way to the individual business. "Some freelancers develop into a business, others return to work on the contract," - sums up the German expert.