英国的就业状况
The UK recognises three categories of employment status: employees, 工人s 和 self-employed contractors, each with varying levels of protection under employment law. Employees are entitled to the full suite of employment rights, while self-employed contractors have very little protection under employment law. Workers who are not employees sit somewhere in the middle 和 are entitled to core rights such as sick pay 和 breaks, national minimum wage, statutory holidays 和 holiday pay. Hermes claimed that their delivery couriers were self-employed 和 , as such, were not entitled to these core 工人s’ rights.
就业法庭的决定
在 reaching the decision that the couriers were 工人s, the tribunal held that:
- 快递员由爱马仕(Hermes)控制,并有义务亲自提供服务。他们没有为他们的客户或客户提供专业服务或经营业务,即“依赖的工作关系”这样他们就不是真正的自雇人士。
- 快递员有权代替其他人代表他们为爱马仕提供服务时,爱马仕保留了对谁是替代者的控制权,并且可以否决快递员对替代者的选择。快递人员还必须确保替代产品的交付符合爱马仕要求的标准。
- 爱马仕自己在文件上的证据,尤其是关于文件与快递员之间的薪酬谈判的证据,“完全没有说服力”,有时甚至令人难以置信。仲裁庭认为,在任何情况下,薪酬谈判都是– in reality –有限且特殊。
对企业意味着什么?
This finding is another judgment in a long run of gig economy cases, in which individuals who are ostensibly self-employed have succeeding in their claims that they are, in fact, 工人s. The reason that Hermes 和 other companies in the gig economy (Pimlico Plumbers, City Sprint, Addison Lee etc.) are fighting these status cases so hard is that misclassification is expensive, for both future payments 和 in respect of past omissions, including for non-payment of holiday pay following the recent ECJ’s decision in the case of 王 v 窗扇车间有限公司 在那种情况下,欧洲法院裁定,在雇主拒绝带薪休假的情况下,包括在个人被错误地归类为自雇的情况下,《工作时间指令》规定的带薪年假的权利可以无限期延续。
爱马仕在新闻界表示,它将对这一决定提起上诉,因为工会和其他组织不断呼吁改变就业状况法。同时,建议企业趁此机会审查独立交易的正确状态并纠正任何异常情况,以期避免以后的索赔。