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Hi All, I hope you can help.
Im a photographer that took a part-time job with my partners firm to help them out as at the time, they only wanted someone 1 1/2 days a week. It helped me and my partner a bit as well, so all was good for a while.
fast forward 2 years and post pandemic, my partner resigned due to bullying at work following a promotion, I had ended up becoming a branch manager on 4 days a week and now I’ve been constructively dismissed due to unfounded and fantasy based allegations of passing work to a competitor. They ignored the fact my branch was 140% of target and accounted for 7/10 five star reviews.
Anyway, during my employment I have, in my own time, using my own equipment and expertise, under my own initiative, taken dozens of images of the companies products (memorials, they are a stonemasons), exclusively of the jobs myself and my partner have done through our branch. They were taken for our own purposes, as a selling aid for new customers, to show examples of the creative options available. Management caught sight of these images and I agreed for them to use them provided I was given a credit. Only a verbal agreement though.
Now their website is full of my images, (only some they have paid for following a single days commission) and I don’t want these people, who have treated myself and my partner in such a disgusting way - (they hacked my partners Facebook messages and disseminated private messages between all the management there, mis-interpreted what was in the messages and then tried to use the same ridiculous accusations against me, but that’s another story).
So they are using my images, taken as I said, in my own time, for my own use. I also designed several posters using my own images. They agreed to pay for the posters that are now in the branch windows, increasing turnover significantly, but I did all the design and print ready files.
What can I do about this? I really feel that they don’t deserve to use my images and personal work that, in their own words “gives them a commercial advantage”.
Im a photographer that took a part-time job with my partners firm to help them out as at the time, they only wanted someone 1 1/2 days a week. It helped me and my partner a bit as well, so all was good for a while.
fast forward 2 years and post pandemic, my partner resigned due to bullying at work following a promotion, I had ended up becoming a branch manager on 4 days a week and now I’ve been constructively dismissed due to unfounded and fantasy based allegations of passing work to a competitor. They ignored the fact my branch was 140% of target and accounted for 7/10 five star reviews.
Anyway, during my employment I have, in my own time, using my own equipment and expertise, under my own initiative, taken dozens of images of the companies products (memorials, they are a stonemasons), exclusively of the jobs myself and my partner have done through our branch. They were taken for our own purposes, as a selling aid for new customers, to show examples of the creative options available. Management caught sight of these images and I agreed for them to use them provided I was given a credit. Only a verbal agreement though.
Now their website is full of my images, (only some they have paid for following a single days commission) and I don’t want these people, who have treated myself and my partner in such a disgusting way - (they hacked my partners Facebook messages and disseminated private messages between all the management there, mis-interpreted what was in the messages and then tried to use the same ridiculous accusations against me, but that’s another story).
So they are using my images, taken as I said, in my own time, for my own use. I also designed several posters using my own images. They agreed to pay for the posters that are now in the branch windows, increasing turnover significantly, but I did all the design and print ready files.
What can I do about this? I really feel that they don’t deserve to use my images and personal work that, in their own words “gives them a commercial advantage”.