Highest court boosts 'self-employed' workers’ rights in landmark
ruling
28 July 2011
The supreme court has confirmed, in a landmark judgment, that
valeters working for Autoclenz were employees and not self employed
contractual workers.
Britain’s highest court has upheld a court of appeal ruling, and
a previous one by an employment tribunal, that clauses in the
contracts of 20 Unite members working for Autoclenz (which had a
contract to clean cars for British Car Auctions) which were
designed to suggest that they were self-employed and not employees,
should be disregarded.
As a result it will be much more difficult for employers to take
away employees’ employment rights by labelling them “self
employed”.
The supreme court judges held unanimously that the court of
appeal was entitled to decide that the claimants were employees
because they were working under contracts of employment within the
meaning of the national minimum wage and working time
regulations.
They said that the court of appeal’s findings were “findings of
fact which Autoclenz cannot sensibly challenge in this court”.
The clauses Autoclenz put in to the contracts included a
supposed right for the valeters to send a substitute to carry out
their work and a clause suggesting that Autoclenz did not have to
provide work to the valeters and that the valeters did not have to
do any work that was offered.
In reality the valeters could not send a substitute and did have
to do work that was offered to them. And they had been told that no
further work would be provided if they did not sign the
contracts.
The supreme court’s decision means that the valeters will now
enjoy the whole range of employment rights including:
- the right not to be unfairly dismissed;
- holiday pay;
- national minimum wage;
- maternity pay; and
- redundancy pay.
They would have had none of those rights had they been held to be
self-employed contractors as Autoclenz had claimed.
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “This is a boost for
workers’ rights. For far too long too many employers have tried to
take away our members’ employment rights by claiming they are 'self
employed' when quite clearly they are not. We have always been able
to see through these sham arrangements and are pleased that first
the court of appeal and now the supreme court have too.”
ENDS
Contact: Ciaran Naidoo (Unite) 07768 931 315
