Exclusive agency contractor

"Exclusive agency contractor" is the label on the switch Upwork shows when an agency invites someone; its help articles also say exclusive agency member. Upwork calls it the most common kind of agency relationship, and its roles table describes these members as permanent freelancers working full-time for the agency.

What changes for the freelancer.

• Profile and proposals carry the agency's branding, so clients can see the agency's part in the work.
• All contract payments go to the agency, which then pays the member; Upwork does not facilitate that second payment.
• They do not buy Connects and cannot: every proposal draws on the agency's Connects.
• They cannot send proposals or take jobs independently, or join another agency.
• Their profile rate, visibility and earnings privacy are set on the agency roster by the owner or an account admin, not by an agency manager alone.

Joining as exclusive. An exclusive invitation is blocked while the freelancer still has active individual proposals, and Upwork shows the message "User has active job applications". There are two ways forward: invite them as non-exclusive by turning the switch off, and they join at once and keep their proposals; or keep the invitation exclusive and have them withdraw every active individual proposal before the owner resends it. Active proposals never block a non-exclusive invitation.

Scores and badges. Once the agency qualifies for a JSS, exclusive members show the agency's score on their profiles instead of their own, and agency badges can appear on them too; see agency badges.

What non-exclusive members keep, and the wider membership rules, are under agency member.

How Upsight uses it. Upsight records whether each roster member is exclusive but does not treat it as a sending rule. Whether best fit may bid as a person is a separate per-person choice the agency makes, because Upwork lets a business manager submit for any member, exclusive or not.