Disputes & Resolution Policy

1. Overview

This Disputes & Resolution Policy describes how disagreements between an Employer and a Worker on the Worqen Service are handled when funds are held in Worqen escrow. It supplements the Terms of Service and is binding on every User who funds, receives or works under a Worqen escrow.

This Policy is concerned with release of funds from escrow. Wider contractual or legal claims between Users (for example claims for additional damages, IP ownership, or claims against Worqen itself) follow the dispute-resolution mechanism in Section 17 of the Terms of Service (ICC arbitration, Tallinn seat) or your statutory consumer rights, as applicable.

2. When you can raise a dispute

Either the Employer or the Worker may raise a dispute on an escrow that is in FUNDED or PENDING_RELEASE status. Once a dispute is raised, funds in the vault are frozen until the dispute is resolved.

3. Common grounds for a dispute

• The Worker did not deliver the work, or delivered it materially late;
• The deliverable is materially different from what was agreed;
• The deliverable is plagiarised, infringes third-party IP, or contains undisclosed AI-generated content where disclosure was required;
• The Employer is not responding and the auto-release window has not yet been triggered;
• One party suspects the other's account is compromised or fraudulent.

Disputes that are clearly outside the Service (off-platform engagements, claims arising from work not booked through Worqen) cannot be resolved through this Policy.

4. Lifecycle and service levels

Worqen aims to handle every dispute on the schedule below. Where the case is unusually complex (for example, multi-language evidence, third-party legal claims, suspected coordinated fraud), we may extend any window with written notice; we will not extend them silently.

5. Evidentiary standards

Worqen reviews disputes on the basis of the evidence on the Service, not on offline knowledge. The strongest evidence is:

• The job description, agreed scope and milestones as posted on the Service;
• Messages in the on-platform chat between the parties;
• Files uploaded through the Service (work products, briefs, references);
• Worklog entries and milestone submissions made on the Service;
• Time-stamped commits, edits and version history available within the Service.

Off-platform evidence (separate emails, screenshots from other channels) may be considered but carries less weight, and Worqen may discount evidence that we cannot cryptographically or contextually verify. To strengthen your position in a future dispute, keep the relevant communications and deliverables on the Service.

6. Possible outcomes

• Full release to Worker — the Worker receives the deposit; the Employer pays the 1.5% commission;
• Full refund to Employer — the Employer recovers the deposit and the commission;
• Split release — the deposit is split between the parties in the proportion Worqen determines to be fair on the evidence; commission applies only to the portion released to the Worker;
• Re-hire credit — at our discretion, the Employer may receive a re-hire credit for the affected amount, valid for 90 days, as set out in the Refund & Cancellation Policy;
• Account action — where dispute review uncovers fraud, account takeover, sanctions hits or other serious breach, Worqen may suspend or terminate the offending account in addition to (not instead of) deciding the escrow.

7. Who decides

Decisions are made by Worqen Trust & Safety personnel under the supervision of the Worqen Disputes Lead. Any release of funds from the Escrow Program is then signed by Worqen's multi-signature platform-authority. The signers are composed of three independent classes of signers (operations, security and an external signer); a 2-of-3 threshold is required for any signature. Specific signer identities are not disclosed for security reasons. The 2-of-3 multi-sig is also the only mechanism by which Worqen can move escrow funds at all; Worqen does not hold a single hot key capable of resolving a dispute alone.

8. Appeals

Either party may appeal a dispute decision in writing to disputes-appeal@worqen.com within 7 days of the decision. The appeal will be reviewed by a different reviewer than the one who made the original decision. We will respond substantively within 14 days. Appeals do not stay the on-chain resolution unless we explicitly say so.

9. Independence from arbitration

Worqen's dispute decision is final between the parties for the purpose of releasing funds from the Escrow Program. It does not displace:

• your statutory consumer rights, where you are an EU/EEA, UK, Brazilian, Indian or Ukrainian consumer;
• your right to bring proceedings against the other party (or against Worqen, where applicable) under the dispute-resolution clause of the Terms of Service;
• EU consumers' right to use the European Commission's online dispute resolution platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr for claims against Worqen.

10. Abuse of the dispute process

Filing a dispute in bad faith — fabricated evidence, repeated frivolous disputes, coordinated retaliation, attempts to use the dispute system to extract free work — is a breach of the Acceptable Use Policy. We may decide the dispute against the bad-faith party and pursue enforcement under that Policy (including suspension and account termination).

11. Contact

Open dispute: through the dispute button in the relevant escrow.
Status enquiries: disputes@worqen.com
Appeals: disputes-appeal@worqen.com