I work (unfortunately) as an independent contractor (IT support).
Recently a customer company went through a change in ownership, and got put in the charge of a large management company. So, obviously, some internal policies changed.
One of the policies was that every vendor (including myself) register with a 3rd party 'vendor portal' online service, and pay a repetitive subscription fee (and it wasn't a small, $5 fee, but that's besides the point– it was over $100 if you're wondering), and jump through a bunch of hoops for the privilege of potentially continuing to work for them.
Keep in mind, there was no contract here. They called for on-demand fixes only. There was no monthly fee that I was able to charge them.
I struggled for a long time, tried to figure out a way that I could comply (with both this and the additional insurance and worker's comp insurance requirements that they were also demanding, which are not required in my case by local / state law) without seeing a potential for myself to be financially in the hole hundreds if not thousands of dollars more every year, for no promise of paying work in return.
I finally told them, after they (the management company) were very rude to me (at least I felt) on the phone, “I'm sorry, we can't do do that for you under these circumstances. I am not going to pay some 3rd party for the privilege to work for you, and I will not incur additional, non-required expenses, for no guaranteed return.” and hung up the phone.
I called the local manager, whom I'd dealt with for many years, and had to leave them a message to tell them that I wouldn't be able to work with the new management's requirements.
I really hated to lose the customer, I have nothing against the actual people here locally, and I know this has caused a headache for them. And I'm sorry for that. But, after thinking about it for a few months, I feel I made the right choice.
Several companies have tried to pull this crap since then, since January when this happened with this one company. I have told them each, “No.”
Everyone, I am asking you do the same.
If a company asks you to pay them money, no matter how small the amount, in order to work for them, tell them, “No.”
This needs to not become the norm. We need to nip this in the butt before late-stage-capitalism creates yet another middleman to steal profits from the working class.
Please, everyone who's in a similar situation, if you can somehow find it in yourself, if you run into something like this: Say, “No.”