Migrant workers have received a boost to their employment rights after a senior judge ruled that a group of Polish nationals could be classed as "employees" of the agency that had sent them to work in the food-processing industry. The Poles, who were sent to work for a company called West Country Foods, complained that they had been dismissed after they tried to join a British union.
They said they were denied notice pay, in breach of contract, and alleged there had been unlawful deductions from their wages.
But in order to pursue all these claims, the Polish immigrants needed to be qualified legally as "employees", rather than fall into the looser category of "workers". The difference between the two categories is the amount of control that an employer has over a labourer.
An employment tribual came down in their favour, and yesterday Mr Justice Elias, the president of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, agreed. The judge said it was a case where "the nature of the relationship justified a finding that there was a contract of employment between the agency and the workers."
Oliver Segal, at Old Square Chambers, which acted for the Polish workers, said: "The case is important in establishing that migrant workers may indeed be treated by courts as employees of an agency, even where day-to-day control of their work is exercised by the agency's clients - the hotels and factories - and even when the agencies' contracts with workers try to disguise this employee relationship."
The claims over dismissal for union membership and unlawful deductions will go forward to be determined on their merits.
The migrants themselves had limited English and had arranged with teh Consistent Group agency that it would find them work while in Poland. They then travelled to the UK in late April and were put up by the agency in a hostel with other Polish workers.
They signed contracts with the agency in early May and started work at West Country Foods. Money was deducted for accommodation and cleaning charges, amounting to about £56 a week. One of the claimants alleged that she was refused time off from work when she asked. The workers subsequently tried to join the Transport & General Workers' Union.
Lawyers for the agency claimed the Poles were given a seperate document headed "Being Self-Employed - what it means" at the same time as their contracts. But the tribunal said that the document was provided after contracts had been signed and that it could nto be treated as amending the contracts themselves.
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The Financial Times Limited 2007
19.05.2007 |
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| Saturday, May 19, 2007 |
