{"id":140500,"date":"2018-06-13T09:31:01","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T09:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/plumber-wins-workers-rights-battle-against-pimlico-plumbers\/"},"modified":"2018-06-13T09:31:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T09:31:01","slug":"plumber-wins-workers-rights-battle-against-pimlico-plumbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/plumber-wins-workers-rights-battle-against-pimlico-plumbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Plumber wins workers’ rights battle against Pimlico Plumbers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"GaryImage copyright XP Plumbing and Heating
Image caption Gary Smith is entitled to basic workers' rights, the Supreme Court ruled <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A plumber has won a legal battle for working rights in a Supreme Court ruling expected to have huge ramifications for freelance workers.<\/p>\n

Gary Smith had worked solely for Pimlico Plumbers for six years.<\/p>\n

Despite being VAT-registered and paying self-employed tax, he was entitled to workers' rights, the court ruled. <\/p>\n

The ruling will be closely read by others with similar disputes, many of whom work for firms in the so-called gig economy.<\/p>\n

An employment tribunal was "entitled to conclude" that Mr Smith was a worker, the court ruled.<\/p>\n

As a worker Mr Smith would be entitled to employment rights, such as holiday and sick pay.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court ruling means that an employment tribunal can now proceed to examine his action against Pimlico Plumbers as a worker, including a claim that he was unfairly dismissed.<\/p>\n

Mr Smith, from Kent, began his battle with Pimlico Plumbers when he wanted to reduce his hours following a heart attack in 2010.<\/p>\n

He wanted to cut the five-day week, which he had been signed up to work with the firm, to three.<\/p>\n

However, the firm refused and took away his branded van, which he had hired. He claims he was dismissed.<\/p>\n

'Wild West'<\/h2>\n

Pimlico Plumbers chief executive Charlie Mullins condemned the ruling.<\/p>\n

"This was a poor decision that will potentially leave thousands of companies, employing millions of contractors, wondering if one day soon they will get nasty surprise from a former contractor demanding more money, despite having been paid in full years ago. <\/p>\n

"It can only lead to a tsunami of claims," he added. <\/p>\n

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: "This case has exposed how widely sham self-employment has spread. Bad employers are using every trick in the book to deny staff basic rights.<\/p>\n

"It's time to end the Wild West in the gig economy. The government must get tough on rogue bosses and give unions the right to organise in more workplaces."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright XP Plumbing and HeatingImage caption Gary Smith is entitled to basic workers' rights, the Supreme Court ruled A plumber has won a legal battle for working rights in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}