Force Majeure (French for “superior force”), is a common clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such as a war, strike, riot, crime, or an event described by the legal term “act of God” (e.g., flooding, earthquake, volcano), prevents one or both parties from fulfilling their obligations under the contract.
While working with offshore teams, in particular in countries that are subject to severer environmental conditions such as Bangladesh or Philippines you should never forget about how real Force Majeure is. For my pet project wwhow.com I use support of freelancers from Philippines in SEO and data entry tasks via oDesk service. Here is an email I just received from one of my providers –
Dear Nick,
We had experienced a typhoon Ketsana that hits our area tremendously last Saturday morning since then our power was cut due to heavy rains and floods. Floods were everywhere including in our home. Power was restored last night. In this regard, the two accounts were not able to finish the working hours load for the week.
Rest assured this week, we will continue to post quality deals and able to finish work load. I apologize for this unavoidable circumstances.
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Kind regards,
Jennifer