Tuesday 7 February 2017

Courier Wins Holiday Pay in Gig-economy Ruling

A cycle courier working for the delivery firm CitySprint has won the right to paid holidays and minimum pay after being wrongly classed as self-employed. A tribunal ruled that CitySprint had unlawfully failed to award holiday pay to Mags Dewhurst and had wrongly classed her as a self - employed freelancer.

Dewhurst,who has made deliveries for CitySprint for more than two years,does not receive a guaranteed wage ,sick pay or holiday pay,because the company considers her an independent contractor.The tribunal found that her formal employment classification should be as a worker , and,as such entitled to paid holiday,the national minimum wage and potentially sick pay.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/06/courier

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Heavier Fines For Sexist Dress Codes?


Employers that enforce sexist dress codes could be in line for stricter punishment and fines,if the Government follows recommendations set out in a new report.

The report ,prepared jointly by the Women and Equalities Commission and the Petitions Commission, entitled High Heels and Workplace Dress Codes,recommends that the Government "takes urgent action to improve the effectiveness of the Equality Act" and that employment tribunals should be able to ask for more effective remedies,such as financial penalties,for those employers who breach the law.

It says:"It is clear that there are not currently enough disincentives to prevent employers breaching the law. Penalties should be set at such a level as to ensure  that employees are not deterred from bringing claims,and to deter employers from breaching the regulations".

An enquiry was triggered last year by a receptionist,Nicola Thorp,who set up a parliamentary petition to make it illegal for companies to force employees to wear high heels to work.She had been sent home from work after being told it was her agency's "grooming policy" for women to wear two-to-four inch heels.Her petition received more that 150,000 signatures.

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