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Hello! Happy Tuesday from a lovely Autumn morning in Stoke, unlike the grey drizzle we’ve had for the past couple of days! Last weekend it was the Stoke v Derby fixture in the football, my mum’s side of the family are all from Derby so given the family rivalry, we all decided to go together (Stoke won!). We also took my niece for her first ever football game (pic below), but she wasn’t too excited by the whole ordeal (see pic number 2 with my uncle)! I won’t stop my hope of her playing for lionesses just yet though 😊

Overall, it’s been pretty quiet here in the MacAskill household the past couple of weeks. Probably the calm before the (Christmas) storm, is it too early to mention the C word?! I have made a start on buying presents, and my mother-in-law has actually finished all her shopping and wrapping!! This did give me some anxiety, but there’s ages to go yet isn’t there?!? Not that that’s stopping me from trying to convince my husband to go up the loft to get my Christmas mugs down…

Anyway, enough of Christmas for now and onto what I’m here to talk about, you might remember my McFly themed blog a few weeks ago, you can read the blog here.  Aside from my excellent puns, this blog was all about a case around one of our favourite topics here at Precept: employment status.

Well, last Friday, we got the outcome of that case and Bolt drivers were found to have worker status in the tribunal, rather than being classed as self-employed. This is something that the drivers’ lawyers believe will mean the 15,000 individuals are entitled to £200 million in compensation (but remedy will be decided next year). It will also mean that going forward they will be entitled to holidays and minimum wage.

So, what takeaways can we have, even if you don’t have gig economy workers in your workplace?

Well, the tribunal specifically mentioned that the contract between the drivers, was “a fiction”, which highlights for us that the importance in cases often lies with what in reality is happening, not just what is on paper. A tribunal will look beyond what is written in the contract and any policies, and instead look at the day-to-day relationship of what actually happens. So, whilst it is important to have the correct paperwork, this paperwork also need to be an accurate reflection of what is going on within the organisation. You can have the perfect handbook and contracts, but if they’re not implemented across the organisation correctly, then they don’t mean much! And you could inadvertently find yourself with a load of people who you think are self-employed, suddenly becoming workers – or worse, employees!

I won’t go over all the tests again, as they were all in my earlier blog so go take a look at that for further information on those if you need a reminder!

Bolt has said it is reviewing its options, including whether they are going to appeal the decision and of course we will keep you up to date on any developments.

If you’re concerned that you might have individuals in your workforce who are defined wrongly and wondering whether they might be employees, workers or self employed, then get in touch with us today and we can help.