Thousands of agency workers will be entitled to greater employment rights after a ruling in favour of a group of Polish workers in the food processing industry, saying they should be considered employees rather than self-employed.
The case, Kalwak & others v Consistent, will have important implications for thousands of agency workers across all sectors; and for the agencies who employ them, some of whom evade paying holiday pay, sick pay or pension rights by classing their workers as self-employed. The judgement was made after Consistent had appealed against the original Employment Appeals Tribunal decision.
Unite, the new union created out of a merger between TGWU and Amicus, has been pursuing the case against Consistent since the members, who worked at Welsh Country Foods in Winsford in Cheshire, were evicted from their accommodation following dismissal in 2005. The ruling enables Unite to take the workers’ case to the next stage to claim for unfair dismissal and victimisation for trade union activities. The Polish workers involved had recently become organised into the union, as part of the drive to organise workers throughout the food processing industry.
In reaching the decision, the Employment Appeals Tribunal highlighted the firm measure of effective control over the claimants’ working lives. The chairman said, “They told them when and where they had to work, they might deny them days off, and they provided them with transport and accommodation (taken away, as it proved, without notice).”
Tony Woodley, Joint General Secretary of Unite, said: “This judgement is an unequivocal statement on the employment rights of agency workers. There are thousands and thousands of workers across Britain who are subject to appalling treatment because of agency exploitation of their vulnerability, and this judgement has blown their so-called ’self-employed’ status out of the water.
