[OSGeo-Discuss] RE: Insurance for contractors?

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

I've been on all three sides of this issue in Canada as well.  

1 - Hiring requirements due to a funding source required insurance prior
to letting a contract - so the one man shop we had previously hired had
to get insurance to remain working with us (prior to OSGeo, I might
add).  

2 - I've been on the contractor side in a large firm where we _did_ have
insurance, so it wasn't issue then, but I knew other companies who
couldn't bid on similar work because of it.

3 - I also bid on a project before as an independent contractor only to
find this restrictions as a showstopper (there was no guarantee of the
work, so I wasn't going to spend the money).  

At the end of the day, it certainly *felt* like the issue being
addressed was less about professional insurance and more about keeping
independent contractors out of the bidding market.  Sorry to hear you
are hitting it.

Tyler

On Mon, 2009-08-31 at 14:00 -0700, Michael P. Gerlek wrote: 
> Well, this is interesting...
> 
> I've already received a number of private responses from people who do not have insurance but wish to remain anonymous so their potential employers don't ask about it.
> 
> Feel free to email me directly with your responses to the below questions, and I'll post a summary in a few days with no names attached.
> 
> -mpg
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Michael P. Gerlek
> Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 10:03 AM
> To: OSGeo Discussions
> Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Insurance for contractors?
> 
> In the past I've hired some people for contract or consultant work (both open source projects and more general stuff) -- generally these people have been independent, one-man shops found by word of mouth and reputation, as opposed to hiring someone from an agency.
> 
> I'm getting pushback now from the administrative side of my company saying that any contractor I hire needs to have proof of insurance.  I understand the legal reasons for this, but I'm wondering how many of you out there actually have business/contractors insurance?  Do companies you work for insist on it, or not?  And how many of you are formally set up as LLCs or sole proprietorships or such?
> 
> [while this is likely a US-centric issue from the hiring side, I'm interested in international responses too since I've hired some foreigners as well over the years]
> 
> -mpg
> 
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