Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash
One of the consistent themes of my blog has concerned an individual’s employment status in the work-place – or the very real difficulties associated with the lack of such status.
Section 230(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 defines who is an “employee” in the following terms:
“… an individual who has entered into or works under (or, where the employment has ceased, worked under) a contract of employment.”
As I have stated on more than one occasion, those who have a contract of service rather than a contract for services tend to be in a much stronger position legally speaking when it comes to a range of employment rights such as:
- Paternity and maternity pay/leave
- Statutory adoption pay/leave
- Consultation rights in redundancy and TUPE situations
- Entitlement to redundancy payments
- Entitlement to sick pay
- Minimum notice periods
- Protection against unfair dismissal
The above are just some of the rights that people with employment status potentially can acquire depending on their length (or continuity) of service with their employer.
Those individuals with more insecure working patterns (e.g zero hours and/or casual workers) will almost never be in a situation to acquire such rights because it is almost always impossible for them to build up the necessary period of continuous service with the organisations to which they provide services. Typically, many of these workers are part of what has become known as the “gig economy” where the feature of employment contracts known as mutuality of obligation is absent.
Admittedly, the UK Government has attempted to begin to address the disadvantages facing “gig economy” workers by setting up the Taylor Review (which published its findings in July 2017). The final report made 53 recommendations concerning modern, employment practices:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/good-work-the-taylor-review-of-modern-working-practices
The UK Government’s official response to the Taylor Review was entitled “Good Work” and a link to this document can be found below:
The desire to extend workers’ rights seems to be something of a trend as, in April 2019, the European Union also ratified a new Directive with the working title Transparent and predictable working conditions in the European Union. This Directive (for the remaining EU 27 member states) will certainly give casual workers greater legal rights, but given the current uncertainty over the UK’s Brexit position, it remains to be seen if this measure will ever be implemented in this country (for more information, see my blog entitled “The gig economy” which was published on 19 April 2019).
One of the most significant new rights that the UK Government is proposing to extend to non-employees is the right to sick pay from day 1 of their service. It is calculated that this reform (if implemented) will benefit some 2 million workers.
A link to how the story was reported by The Independent can be found below:
https://edition.independent.co.uk/editions/uk.co.independent.issue.160719/data/9005291/index.html
Although employment law is a matter reserved to the Westminster Parliament, the Scottish Government has established its own Fair Work Convention with the express aim:
“… that, by 2025, people in Scotland will have a world-leading working life where fair work drives success, wellbeing and prosperity for individuals, businesses, organisations and society.”
A link to the Convention’s website can be found below:
https://www.fairworkconvention.scot
Copyright Seán J Crossan, 22 July 2019
Seán Crossan's Scots Law 