The UK Court of Appeal has given its judgment in the case of Smith v Pimlico Plumbers and has allowed the appeal by the appellant in relation to his claim for holiday pay. The case considered whether the worker (who had been incorrectly identified as self-employed) was within time to bring his claim for paid
Effective today, May 6, 2021, the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Trump-era independent contractor rule has been officially withdrawn. The Trump-era independent contractor rule, which never went into effect due to the change between presidential administrations, would have made it easier for companies to classify workers as independent contractors.
The Trump-era independent contractor rule expressly adopted and clarified the “economic realities test” for worker classification, and would have narrowed the focus of the inquiry to five distinct factors: (1) the nature and degree of the individual’s control over the work; (2) the individual’s opportunity for profit or loss; (3) the amount of skill required to perform the work; (4) the degree of permanence in the relationship between the individual and the potential employer; and (5) whether the work performed by the individual is part of an integrated unit of production. The independent contractor rule veered away from the classic application of the economic realities test applied by the courts by providing that the nature and degree of the worker’s control over the work and the worker’s opportunity for profit or loss were “core factors” that were to be given greater weight than the other factors. If both of those two “core factors” supported the same classification, there would have been a “substantial likelihood” that the classification is appropriate. Many viewed this as a substantial departure from the prior multi-factor “totality of the circumstances tests,” because if the “core factors” both pointed towards one classification, the analysis was likely to be complete and unaffected by the three remaining factors.
The Biden administration’s DOL has withdrawn the independent contractor rule for several reasons, including that:
The Supreme Court has today handed down its decision in Uber BV and others v Aslam and others, upholding the Employment Tribunal decision that the drivers are ‘workers’ within the meaning of S.230(3)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996) and the equivalent definitions in the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 (NMWA 1998)
The Supreme Court has dismissed the latest appeal by Pimlico Plumbers Ltd (the Company) against the employment tribunal’s decision that one of its plumbers, Mr Smith, was a “worker” under the provisions of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA) and the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR). The Supreme Court held that, on the facts of
Further to our post on the UK Government’s announcement (7 February 2018) of its Good Work plan following the Taylor review of Modern Working Practices published in July last year (the Review), the Government’s full response has now been published (the Response) together with the four consultation documents promised.
The key proposals detailed in the Response and the four consultation documents are set out below.
(Note: Since drafting this post, the Government has published the consultation documents so a further update will follow.)
The UK Government has today (7 February) announced its Good Work Plan (the Plan) in response to the Taylor review of Modern Working Practices published last year which set out a number of recommendations,