Consultancy Terms of Service
These terms apply to an HR or industrial-relations practice ("the Practice") that uses Sous-Chef to work on the records of companies that choose it ("clients"). They sit beside the Terms of Service, which apply to every account.
1. Who these terms are between
These terms are between Sous-Chef and the Practice. The Practice's principal accepts them on the Practice's behalf and confirms they may do so. The Practice is responsible for everyone it brings onto Sous-Chef.
2. Vetting and your Information Officer
Sous-Chef checks every practice before a client can link to it, including that the Practice has an Information Officer registered with the Information Regulator. The Practice keeps those details true and tells Sous-Chef within five working days if its Information Officer, its registration or its principal changes. Sous-Chef may withdraw its vetting if they stop being true.
3. Your people and their seats
- Each person uses their own account, with a second sign-in step (a passkey or an authenticator app). Accounts are never shared.
- The Practice invites only people who work for it, and removes someone from Sous-Chef the day they leave or no longer need access.
- A professional registration recorded against a person is true, and the principal confirms it before that person signs a report.
- Sous-Chef staff can't hold a role in a practice, and the Practice doesn't ask them to.
4. Working on a client's records
The Practice works on a client's records only through a link the client has accepted, only within the scopes the client granted, and only through the consultants assigned to that client. For that work the client is the responsible party and the Practice is the client's operator, under the Client–Consultancy Operator Agreement or an operator agreement of the client's own. The Practice never uses a client's records for its own purposes, such as marketing, benchmarking or building precedents.
5. Acceptable use
The Practice and its people do not:
- copy, scrape or bulk-extract client records, or try to get round the limits on what they can see;
- keep client records outside Sous-Chef, other than a signed report the client has shared with them or what they download through Sous-Chef for that client's work, which is logged and must be returned or destroyed when the access ends;
- engage a sub-operator for a client's records without that client's prior written authorisation;
- share access with anyone, or use Sous-Chef for any purpose other than the client's work.
6. Security obligations
- Every device used for client work has a screen lock and encrypted storage, and isn't shared.
- A lost or stolen device is reported to the principal at once, who ends its sessions in Sous-Chef.
- Everyone who works on client records is bound by a written confidentiality undertaking.
- The principal reviews who has access, and to which clients, at least every three months.
7. Security compromises
If the Practice suspects that a client's personal information has been accessed or acquired by someone without authority, it tells the client immediately and in any event within 24 hours of becoming aware of it, and tells Sous-Chef at the same time.
8. Suspension
Sous-Chef may suspend the Practice's access, or a person's, while it looks into a client's complaint, a suspected breach of these terms or a suspected security compromise. It tells the principal why, unless the law or an investigation prevents it.
9. Your professional work
Reports, findings and opinions are the Practice's professional work and its responsibility, not Sous-Chef's. Sous-Chef provides the tools and gives no legal or professional advice. The Practice holds professional indemnity cover suited to its work.
10. Fees
Any fee for the Practice's use of Sous-Chef is agreed in writing before it applies. Sous-Chef charges nothing per hearing or audit.
11. When the relationship ends
Either party may end these terms on 30 days' written notice, or at once for a serious breach. When they end, or when a client revokes a link, the Practice's access to that client's records ends immediately. The Practice returns or destroys anything of a client's it holds outside Sous-Chef and keeps only the engagement summaries the platform leaves it, which name no employee.
12. Liability and indemnity
The Practice indemnifies Sous-Chef against claims arising from the Practice's breach of these terms or its misuse of a client's records. Otherwise, liability is governed by the Terms of Service, except that nothing limits liability that can't lawfully be limited under POPIA.
13. Changes to these terms
Sous-Chef gives 30 days' notice of a material change. The principal is asked to accept the new version before the Practice takes on new client work.