Unsure about employment contract

[mark1979]

My friend had a job interview last week to work as a charity collector. He was told that he would work directly for the charity and that they would cover his travel costs etc.

Today it turns out that the people who interviewed him are not the charity but are an agency. He will work for and be managed by the charity but the agency will pay him. He was told at interview it would be £9 per hour plus commissions and they cover travel costs. He was issued with the attached contract which makes no mention of any of this. It also transpires that they only pay for travel from Birmingham, so he has to make his way there each day which will cost him around £10 per day.

I suppose my questions are:

1. Does he have fixed hours here or is this essentially a zero hours contract?
2. What is his actual rate of pay? The only rate I see in this agreement is £6.08 per hour.
3. It specifically says that the agency are not his employer, so who is?
4. Does he have the standard rights that any employee would expect?

[Sangie595]

Re: Unsure about employment contract

It's a bit of a pig's ear of a contract, but the terms are clear.

He is not an employee, he is a worker. That means he does not have any of the employees rights at all, only those that accrue to a worker. So unfair dismissal, redundancy pay, certain types of leave are not available.

He is not subject to the agency workers regulations, so he accrues no rights from those either. And yes, he is technically self-employed under an arrangement where the agency do the tax etc., but don't employ him.

I also cannot see any guaranteed hours so I would say this is zero hours, effectively.

People who do this kind of work are called chuggers. Before he decides to do this, he should do some research. The jobs are notoriously naff - that was supposed to say bad but my predictive keyboard for once picked a better word! The employers are bad. And the public in general hate chuggers!

And whilst I may be wrong, I would certainly wonder why he hasn't had any real confirmation of the terms, because it seems rather better paid that I would expect for a job that cannot actually expect much take up. You could easily go a whole day without anyone donating, and at £9 an hour (plus whatever this agency is making) that is a lot of outlay too earn no income! Something doesn't add up there.

On a personal note, to emphasise my point.... I don't ever give to chuggers and I don't know anyone who does now. The whole thing is seriously exploded as charities have been exposed time after time for dubious methods - trust is a serious issue now. I wouldn't do the job.

[mark1979]

Re: Unsure about employment contract

Well he has started the job (hates it already).

The contract refers to an "Assignment Details Form" which should outline his hours, rate of pay etc etc. He asked for this and was told "oh no we don't bother with that, you dont need it". He also questioned why he wasnt employed directly by the charity as thats what they told him at interview. They said "oh its done this way to protect the charity, if a rogue team go out and do something naughty then the charity can distance themselves by saying they dont work for them". He was told that he would be paid for 35 hours per week.

Yesterday he left at 7am, met them at 9am, traveled to their working location for the day, got there at 11am, worked until around 5pm, went back to meeting location, got home around 8pm. Long day for £63 (or £42.56 if they pay as per the contract).

[Sangie595]

Re: Unsure about employment contract

As I said, this form of fundraising is discredited, and actually there have been calls to make it illegal. Although some large charities use it, many have now stopped all forms of fundraising of this sort. A number of them have actually moved the other way - they employ their own people to attend public places like supermarkets and shopping centres, but without the high pressure sell that is causing all the trouble.