Taylor Review Update

The government has issued a press release setting out how it intends to respond to the Taylor Review and commits to four consultations, which will gather further information on the topics raised.

Employment Status - Does the Future Hold Clarification?

The government has accepted that there is a lack of clarity in this area.

One of the key recommendations made by the Taylor Review was to ask the government to codify the case law principles that 'govern' employee status in primary legislation. The case law principles used to determine employment status are 'personal service', 'control' and 'mutuality of obligation'.

However, the Taylor Review did also question whether these principles were appropriate, considering the changing landscape of the modern labour market and the new ways that people are engaged by businesses. The Review went so far as to suggest that to account for modern practices, a new 'dependant contractor' status should be made.

In response, the government has opened an employment status consultation, to canvas views on whether the options proposed by the Taylor Review could achieve more certainty and clarity for businesses (including schools) when determining employment status.

In direct response to the Taylor Review, the government has:

• committed to developing an online tool to determine questions of employment status, once the employment legislation is finalised.
• extended the right to written particulars of terms to workers.
• agreed to legislate to extend the right to receive a payslip to all workers and require that employers state the hours being paid for on the payslips of all time paid workers - this will come into force on 6 April 2019

If you are interesting in reading more about the government's response to the Taylor Review, please visit our OnStream portal. In our full article, we also consider:

• the issues raised around those who work atypical hours (including for example, continuity of service)
• the enforcement of the changes which are being made
• other matters referred to in the response and confirmation as to which proposals will not be taken forward

If you have any questions, please contact Alice Reeve in our Academies, MATs & Schools team on 0117 314 5383.