Tuesday Q&As

9.1.24

• Can you tell me the employment status of my contractors/workers?

• Not disclosing my medical condition when starting work, but now I need to work flexibly. What should I do?

• Sacked by WhatsApp and no pay. What can I do?

• Contractual notice period - must I honour it?

• Can I be dismissed whilst on the sick?

• Can you be prevented from joining a trade union?

• Can I still get redundancy pay if the company has gone bust?

• Can I claim anything for jury service

• Should my boss hear my disciplinary appeal if he chaired the disciplinary hearing?

• Can you employ someone because they have a better personality than another candidate?

Can you tell me the employment status of my contractors/workers?

Q. I have a small limited company that inspects silos on farms.
When I am unavailable I use  up to 5 different people I know who are mostly retired to stand in for me. This is on an irregular ad hoc  basis they have no guarantee of any work, they use their own tools and equipment, and work under their own initiative.
I do look to cover them under our  company public liability insurance though.

Can you tell me their employee status? Are they regarded as employees in the eyes of the HSE ?

A. In your scenario, where you run a small limited company which occasionally uses up to five different people it's important to accurately determine their employment status. This status affects various legal and tax implications.

Given the description of their working arrangement, these individuals would likely be classified as