Are you an employee, a worker or self-employed? The distinction is important, because your employment status affects your rights.
Employees have more rights than workers, and workers have more rights than self-employed people.
This means some employers – especially in the gig economy – treat people as if they are self-employed when, in fact, they are not.
We wrote recently about Uber drivers being reclassified as workers (scroll down for the link), and the Court of Appeal have recently confirmed that the same applies to drivers for the minicab firm, Addison Lee.
As ‘workers’, Addison Lee drivers are entitled to receive National Minimum Wage and holiday pay. Thousands of them could now bring a claim, and receive an average of £10,000 in compensation.
Timeline of the case
2017: Addison Lee drivers Mr Lange, Mr Olszewski and Mr Morahan made a claim, arguing that they were ‘workers’. The Employment Tribunal agreed that they should be paid to cover the time they were logged onto the Addison Lee app, because that meant they were undertaking to accept any jobs allocated to them.
2018: The company appealed, but the Employment Appeal Tribunal agreed with the original judgment.
2019: Addison Lee was given permission to appeal the EAT ruling.
2021: The Court of Appeal dismissed Addison Lee’s application, because, since the Uber judgement in the Supreme Court, the company is “unlikely to succeed”.
What this means to you
People who work in the gig economy deserve to be treated fairly.
If your working practices mean you’d be classified as a ‘worker’ by law, it doesn’t matter if your contract labels you as ‘self-employed’.
If you’re not sure, give us a call. As employment lawyers, we are always on the side of the staff – whether workers or employees – and will advise you on your chances of succeeding if you make a claim against your employer.
Top tip: As you can tell from this case, legal matters can often be complex and take a long time to resolve, but that doesn’t mean you should delay – it’s always best to talk to us early.
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