When a contributor is commissioned for the first time, and they are not on a freelance or staff contract, then a Framework Agreement will be created setting out GNM's terms and conditions.
Framework agreements serve two purposes:
to prevent delays in identifying rights in freelance material and therefore delays distributing Guardian content to our licensed partners, most of which occurs instantaneously with publication on our sites
to enable contributors to formally acknowledge our terms and conditions by providing a signature
Frameworks agreements work by issuing a single, open-ended umbrella agreement at the start of a contributor's relationship with GNM and is signed by the contributor via Adobe esign.
A sample copy of a Framework Agreement can be viewed here.
Importantly, the agreement binds neither the Guardian to commission the contributor in future, nor the contributor to accept any commission.
The framework is stored in RCS like any other contract and acts as a reliable source to verify rights as well as being a record of the contributor's agreement to our terms.
Agreements can be varied on a case-by-case basis by creating a one-off commission.
Framework Agreements need to be signed before any payments can be made.
Content auto-matches to the relevant Framework Agreement and is placed in a queue for editorial users to review the match and where appropriate process payments to the contributor. This is done in the Review matching screen, which can also be accessed from the current matching screen.
For RCS administrators: Framework agreements are created for commissioned contributors provided that the cost centre they are commissioned under is enabled under product spend matching rules.
AT current this relates to written contributions only currently but will be broadened to all formats in the future.