{"id":5059,"date":"2017-04-28T08:25:01","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T08:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplylaw.waydevelopers.com\/england-wales\/wiki\/clarity-on-the-issue-of-employment-status\/"},"modified":"2023-09-12T16:28:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T16:28:59","slug":"clarity-on-the-issue-of-employment-status","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/simply.law\/england-wales\/articles\/clarity-on-the-issue-of-employment-status\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Update: when contractors are &#8220;Workers&#8221; rather than being &#8220;Self-Employed&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><strong>10 February 2017<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Court of Appeal has today determined the case of Pimlico Plumbers &amp; Charlie Mullins v Gary Smith, which concerned the employment status of Gary Smith and the other plumbers more generally.<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div>Mr Smith was VAT registered and paid taxed on a self-employed basis, but worked solely for Pimlico Plumbers for six years, by whom he said he was \u201ctightly controlled\u201d. He argued he was entitled to basic workers\u2019 rights including the National Minimum Wage\/National Living Wage, paid holiday and the ability to bring discrimination claims. Pimlico Plumbers maintained that he was genuinely self-employed.<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div>The Court of Appeal today has agreed with the previous decision of the Employment Tribunal that the plumbers were workers and not self-employed contractors. However, they have also agreed that the workers did not reach the required \u201cgold standard\u201d to be considered as employees.<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div>This case is another example of these type of disputes, many of which involve individuals working in the \u201cgig economy\u201d, and follows hot on the heels of the Uber drivers and the CitySprint cyclist&#8217;s decisions. The fact that the Court of Appeal, the highest court to consider such a case, has found in favour of worker status in this instance, indicates the inclination of the courts to establish the basic worker rights for individuals wherever possible and give them some form of protection. It is increasingly clear that if, as a business, you wish to ensure that your contractors remain genuinely self-employed, the contracts they are working under need to be completely watertight.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A case between a contractor and the plumbing firm he worked for has given some clarity to self-employed workers&#8217; rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":7975,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12331],"tags":[12016,11040,12013,12014,12017,8655,12015],"class_list":{"0":"post-5059","1":"articles","2":"type-articles","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-employment-law-for-employees","8":"tag-citysprint","9":"tag-employment-status","10":"tag-pimlico-plumbers-charlie-mullins-v-gary-smith","11":"tag-self-employed","12":"tag-the-court-of-appeal","13":"tag-uber","14":"tag-workers"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Case Update: when contractors are &quot;Workers&quot; rather than being &quot;Self-Employed&quot; - Simply Law England Wales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;Explore our comprehensive collection of legal articles covering various topics to help you navigate the complexities of the law. 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