Are independent workers obliged to standardise their terms?
I work as an independent English teacher for a large company based in Chambery. Our terms have always been payment in 15 days and it is clearly noted on our invoices. They never pay on time and we now add interest for unpaid bills. They are refusing to pay because they say that their terms are 30 days. In the summer they didn’t pay me for two months. In addition they now say they will not pay my travel allowance, because now they only pay 20 euros not 25 euros.
I have never agreed to this new amount and have told them that the travel allowances will be revised in terms of the correct legal allowance 0,36 euros per km from my house not from a local town that they prefer. The currently owe me over 3000 euros and they have due to their lack of organisation and late payments caused me lots of bank charges. They say I am obliged to change my terms to comply. This seems unlikely but I prefer to check.