A UK pipe fitter received a settlement £2,500 for unfair deductions and holiday from employment agency On-Site Recruitment Solutions Ltd.

The pipe fitter, Russ Blakely, was charged a number of fees after carrying out work at Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire. Blakely was recruited via On-Site. On-Site then informed him that in order to be paid he needed to contact payroll/umbrella company, Heritage Solutions City Limited. He was charged £18 (management deductions) a week to be paid in this manner. He also had employer’s national insurance contributions deducted from his pay. 

After 16 weeks, Blakely was charged £324 in fees and £725.59 in employer NICs.

Blakely was asked to ‘sign a contract of services’ and was informed he was neither an employee nor a worker but was self-employed. This meant that he was not entitled to basic employment rights including holiday pay. However, Blakely refused to sign the contract and when he took holiday in May 2016 he was not asked to return.

Blakely’s case was then heard at the Reading employment tribunal which had ruled against him stating that he was self-employed. 

Trade union, Unite, appealed the case to the Employment Appeals Tribunal which heard the case in December 2017. The appeals tribunal then ruled in favour of Blakely.

Unite stated that the decision sets a legal precedent including that agency workers paid via a payroll/umbrella company could be a worker of the agency, the payroll company or both.

Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett commented, “Unite will now be ensuring that the decisions contained within this case will be applied to other similar cases and the rip offs inherent in the employment agency, umbrella company/ payroll company model are tackled and stamped out.

Onsite Recruitment offers temporary, permanent and contract recruitment services to the Mechanical & Electrical Services, Construction, Facilities Management and Telecoms sectors.