Am i self-employed??

wizadorah

Hi everyone,
i will try to keep this as brief as i can. my situation at the moment is, I've been working for the same company for the past 3 years 6 months, when i first joined the company i was employed by them, with a written contract. almost a year ago now the company announced that certain employees would now be made self employed, i really didn't want this but i also didn't want to be unemployed. The issue i have at the moment is I'm not quite sure if after all this I'm actually self employed. Nothing has changed since being self employed apart from the benefits you do get as an employee, ie sick pay, holidays, overtime..etc etc. i asked for time off today (1 week) as I'm moving home but was told that i couldn't have the time off and if i had a problem then i will be sacked. I no that this is one off the biggest problems i had when being made self employed is knowing that they could sack me without notice.
How do i go about finding out my work status? i did do the employment status check and it does seem that I'm not self employed but where do i go from here?

chrismac1

On the basis of your post you are about as employed as it is possible for anyone to be. I'd suggest an anonymous word with your friendly HMRC inspector if all else fails. Note that your employer is sclearly liable for PAYE and NI which no doubt he or she has not been paying now that you are "self-employed".

Chinkle

How could nothing have changed, unless you weren't one of the ones who was made self employed.

How are you paid? Do you submit an invoice for your time and do self assessment? Do you get a payslip - in which case does it show the company as paying your tax/NI?

I don't understand how you could not know your status.

They can't sack you if you are self-employed because you aren't an employee. They could of course chose not to contract with you for your services.

Btw a company can't just say they are making you self-employed. There are a whole series of criteria that have to be met before any relationship between you and the company could be considered as such, right to dictate the amount of work, when you do it, right of substituting someone else to undertake the work etc etc.

It very much sounds like this company is acting illegally here.

wizadorah

Good morning all, Thank you for both replies.
I am in-fact trying to get to the bottom of this on behalf of my husband. Here are a few more details which may help. My husband pays his NI himself.
He gets paid the same amount weekly, but he has to give them a weekly invoice as well. When he is paid the company have already deducted tax from his wages. When my husband was told that he was being made self employed he wasn't really givin any reason to why they was doing this, employees who was not made self employed are the ones who have been there for a long period of time, i think the only reason the company didn't change them to self employed is because they then would have to pay each redundancy money. I do feel sorry for my husband he is working from 8pm to 6am 5 days a week, he has to pay roughly £40 a week towards diesel sometimes more depending where they are working, he will be lucky most weeks to bring home £300, and now the added worry of if he does have a week off so we can move then he wont have a job to go back to which is the last thing we need especially having children and Christmas around the corner. It really upsets me seeing him so unhappy he really don't deserve the way he is being treated he works so hard and is truly a decent person but my husband is always very wary to ask for any time off because of the threat of being sacked, its not the first time the company have used the "you will be sacked line on him"

olly300

Wizadorah your explanation doesn't actually help that much.

I suggest you get your husband to contact HMRC asap. You can't do that for him because tax affairs are sorted out by the individual unless HMRC has been notified that someone else is acting for him instead.

This doesn't not sound like self-employment at all. It just sounds like a way of the employer giving him less employment rights.

If you are self-employed then you can choose not to work on a particularly day. However the client can insist that you get someone else who is qualified to cover the work on that particular day.

If they do sack him for taking any holiday then unfortunately he would have to threaten them with an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal, not paying him holiday pay etc.

wizadorah

Yes olly30 i totally agree with you regarding the company doing this so he has less employment rights.
At the moment i know my husband is doing all he can to keep the company happy so he still has a job to go to.

Both my husband and i are very unfamiliar with all this as we have always been employed not self employed.

John_Pierpoint

Does your husband work in the construction industry?

Chinkle

Hmm, this all sounds very messy and I get the impression wizadorah that you just want your husband to be able to take that week off for moving and not rock the boat. Unfortunately, if you don't bring this to a head now, something else will crop up in the future. The company can't have it both ways, dictate how and when your husband works but not treat him like an employee when it suits them.

I think a call to HMRC is in order, might not help your OH get the time off he wants, but a little investigation into the practices of this company might shake things up a bit. Also, I know these are hard times, but I'd be looking at finding a job elsewhere.

wizadorah

Hi John, yes he does work in the construction industry.

John_Pierpoint

I think they have stuck him on this:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cis/

[I worked in the construction industry in the 1960's when there were a lot of labour only subcontractors known as "The Lump" - Now that HMRC are getting their tax, perhaps the urgency to sort out the real status of construction workers is not as urgent?]

Mike.ftb

I think the previous post is correct as that is the scheme that i am on and im a self employed joiner, i get a national insurance bill every 3 months and my current employer deducts my tax before i get my wages. you may also be responsible for providing your own public liability insurance so id check up on that.

If i were the op id try to find another employer because a self employed tradesman in the construction industry should be bringing home more than £300 a week even in this current climate, the reason i say this is that im presuming that you are now responsible for buying or hiring every tool you need to do your job and i know from experience that its a costly exercise and i myself am constantly paying out for new tools and equipment, also OP dont forget to save every single reciept from purchases that you make that are to do with your job and fuel reciepts as this should help you to increase your tax rebate every year.

I hope this is of some help as im still finding my way around being a self employed sub contractor myself and know exactly how the OP feels having no rights on site isnt easy but it does have its advantages OP you just need to find the right job or site for you because your current employer doesnt sound like a very fair or understanding person.