Autoclenz Ltd v Belcher & ors
The Supreme Court considers whether express contractual
provisions in a consultancy agreement reflected genuine
self-employment, and concludes that they did not.
Employees come with two expensive price tags. The first is a
raft of statutory rights, such as the right not to be unfairly
dismissed. The second is employer's National Insurance
Contributions, currently charged at 13.8% of earnings and paid by
the employer. Businesses are well aware of this and their
professional advisers will be all too familiar with the refrain
"let's make him a consultant then".
Many businesses will know that such a 'transformation'
is not easy to achieve and that the manner in which the parties
describe themselves (and their intentions) will not be decisive if,
in reality, the 'consultant' is treated no differently than
employees carrying out the same job.
