Do you consider yourself self employed or have contractors that you consider to be self-employed?  Do the contractors turn up to work everyday, have tasks and assignments controlled by the employer, complete assignments on site using company property, and seem to be treated like an employee?  If so, you have employees and not self employed contractors even if you have a contract that states otherwise.  Many contractors wrongly pretend to the HMRC that they are self employed even though legally they are considered employees.

In a recent Court of Appeal case it was decided that two workers who identified themselves to the HMRC as self employed contractors could actually argue that they were employees when it suited the situation.  The employees were able to bring unfair dismissal claims against the employer even though they had contracts that claimed these were self employed individuals. If you are an employer, this case should cause you some alarm because your company could be open to an unfair dismissal claim when you terminate a contract.  All companies really need to make sure that the workers they are using are truly self employed contractors and not employees in disguise.

7 tips for large to small businesses that are looking to hire an Employment Law Solicitor or to simply check that you are getting a good service from your existing advisor.Nobody needs to be reminded that due to the economic recession we are currently experiencing, times are hard for all businesses, whatever their size.

 

Although it may not the first thing that comes to your mind if you are involved in running a business, clear, concise employment law advice should be strongly considered no matter what the economic climate, especially if you are looking to reduce the size of your workforce or review contractual terms and conditions. Consequently, here are seven tips on what to look for if you need employment law advice:

Having problems at work with a colleague or even the boss and unsure of what rights you may have? Even worse are you about to be made redundant and do not know what to do? Solutions are available and you may have more rights than you know about…

Staff across England and Wales who fear they may be at risk from unfair decisions in the workplace now have more options than previously available. Especially with the current increase in redundancies, more and more people are desperate for employment law advice and help. As well as being advised after an issue arises it is also a good idea to be aware of your basic rights before an incident occurs.