Outsourced Workers - Are Their Rights About to Be Extended?
Currently workers who are outsourced are unable to collectively bargain with the user of their services, the so-called 'de facto employer'.
However this could be about to change with the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) launching a legal claim over the rights of outsourced workers to begin collective bargaining.
A Potentially Landmark Case
IWGB has filed a claim on behalf of 75 support workers based at the University of London. The support workers, who include security staff, postroom workers and porters, are employed through a facilities management company, Cordant Security. Whilst Cordant Security is their primary employer, the workers are bringing the claim on the basis that they should have the right to discuss their pay and conditions of employment directly with the University of London.
IWGB claims that under the European Convention on Human Rights, workers have a right to collectively bargain with their 'de facto employer' and that denying this right amounts to a breach of human rights in relation to joining trade unions.
Best Practice
If successful, this claim has the potential to impact many end-users who currently utilise the services of outsourced workers, without the legal responsibility that comes with being an employer.
Interestingly the claim follows plans of the Treasury to extend a crackdown on sham self-employment arrangements, potentially by ensuring that the organisation hiring the worker is responsible for a shortfall in tax, where that worker should have been taxed as an employee. This perhaps demonstrates a push towards end-users taking more responsibility for those working for them.
You may therefore want to review the relationships that your business has with your outsourced workers and assess your potential exposure to collective bargaining, should the claim be successful.