Cliquea aquí para ver este sitio en Español
Estale para ver aqui este local no Português
What We Do / UK Projects
Fair Work Coalition
The Fair Work Coalition is campaigning to ensure fairness at work for those in low-paid and precarious jobs. The coalition includes voluntary and community organisations, faith groups and trade unions.
The coalition is concerned that an increasing number of working people in the UK are being denied rights that provide job security and fair treatment in the workplace as a result of their employment status.
This includes most agency workers, home workers, seasonal workers and casual staff.
Tina's story
Tina's story is just one example of how employers can use self-employment to get around their reponsibilities to homeworkers and to others.
“What really upset me was that I worked for the paper for 25 years, but when they got rid of me there was no recognition of this. No-one said thank you for all the years I had worked for the company.”
Tina, a 67 year-old grandmother, worked from home for her local newspaper for 25 years, sorting and distributing free newspapers for local deliverers.
Tina was clearly not running her own business. She received regular work from the company, and her pay rates were determined by the company. The company provided all the stationary and equipment necessary for her to do her job, except for car expenses. She was, in effect, the newspaper deliverers’ manager.
When Tina became aware that the deliverers were not earning the national minimum wage, she raised this with her boss. When she got no response from him, she informed the National Minimum Wage Compliance Unit of her concerns. The NMW Compliance Unit said they needed to establish who was responsible for the deliverers. If Tina and the deliverers worked for the paper company, it was the company’s responsibility to pay them NMW. If, as the company claimed, Tina was self-employed then she was personally responsible for employing the deliverers, and she could be liable for the years of underpaid wages.
The investigation dragged on, and Tina’s boss asked her to sign a new contract taking full responsibility for the deliverers. Like many homeworkers, Tina was isolated and did not know what the other agents felt or thought about the way they were treated – so she had to fight for her rights on her own. When Tina refused to sign the contract, the company terminated her employment.
“It was ‘terminated with immediate effect’, I shall never forget those words.”
Tina appealed against her unfair dismissal but the company rejected her appeal as they maintained she was not an employee. ‘Unfair dismissal’ is an employee right. If Tina were found to be self-employed she would have no protections, if she were found to be a worker she would have some basic rights, but not protection against unfair dismissal. Despite her years of service, there were no guarantees that Tina would be found to be an employee at Employment Tribunal.
With the support of the National Group on Homeworking , Tina submitted a claim to an Employment Tribunal, and reached an out of court settlement with the company.