Loophole deprives homeworkers of basic employment rights, claim

The National Group on Homeworking and the TUC have called on the Government to close the current legal loophole that means millions of homeworkers are still losing out on basic employment rights.

Calling for the Government to grant homeworkers the same legal rights as employees, the two organisations released the details of an Employment Tribunal case involving a group of nine homeworkers who worked for up to 14 years for the same company at home trimming rubber.

They were asked to sign new contracts stating that they were not employees but self-employed individuals.

Believing they had a right to be paid the national minimum wage, the women decided to take their case to an Employment Tribunal, but this found that the homeworkers were all self-employed. The women subsequently lost their work.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal decided they have no legal rights to redundancy pay or protection from unfair dismissal.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “Employers are increasingly taking advantage of vulnerable groups like homeworkers, agency workers and freelancers.”