wannabeeahack wrote:
never come across it before
a driver gets the NMW hourly rate but invoices a base and drives thier car, doesnt pay any costs
whats his real status?
There are no hard and fast rules, and lots of factors need to be considered, but an hourly rate would certainly be a factor pointing towards employee status, as Sussex alludes.
And the arrangements made by the driver and the firm aren't the end of the story - I recall reading in the past about PAYE workers (not in the trade) actually being deemed self-employed by the courts. (Think it might have been in the context of whether the unfair dismissal legislation applied - it's not all about pay and holidays, etc.)
Of course, the trade debate is more about drivers contracting with firms as self-employed, and whether or not they should really be treated as PAYE employees.
If what the driver and firm agreed was the end of the story then we wouldn't be having the debate, and the Uber and Addison Lee tribunal/court cases wouldn't have happened.
There have been drivers here in my gaffe paid an hourly rate for years, but of course pre-Uber no one really bothered about these things, and indeed it still seems that the rules should only apply to the likes of Uber and Addy Lee