Employment Status Update

The Pimlico Plumbers tribunal is headline news and the Supreme Court have determined last week that Mr Smith was a ‘worker’ under s230(3)(b) of the Employment Rights Act

For Mr Smith to qualify as a worker, the Supreme Court had to find that he had undertaken to personally perform work for Pimlico Plumbers and that the company was not his client or his customer.

It was found that Mr Smith was required to perform the work himself and he did not have a right to give away the work to someone else.

Although Mr Smith had the ability to swap a shift with another Pimlico Plumber, this was set out in his written contract.

Mr Smith was able to reject work and bore some financial risk, but this did not outweigh the decision that Pimlico Plumbers were not a client.

Pimlico controlled Mr Smith’s uniform and his administrative duties, as well as when and how much pay he received.

The control by Pimlico in the relationship was an important factor in determining that Pimlico Plumbers was not a client of Mr Smith.

Mr Smith was, therefore, a ‘worker’.