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Hi, I am starting a new limited company in England with an idea I have been working on for 9 months. By background I am an entrepreneur versed with full time employees. This however is a specific and peculiar situation.
I need to be able to engage workers with flexible hours based on demand. The work is relationship based and hard to predict. Before engaging workers this is made clear to them (the MO of the form) and so would any legal wording. The service provision is low cost to clients and the potential workers happy with the hourly rate.
Ordinarily this would mean zero hour contracts give the variability and low cost nature of the work. However, this service is very innovative and I don't want it easily replicated and secondly we source the clients (and so pay the costs of customer acquisition) so we want very narrow exclusively and non-solicitation for 4 months after leaving employment/engagement.
I have read the 2016 amendment to the 1996 Employment Rights Act.
Looking at all the circumstances there is a good case for these workers to be self-employed but I think HMRC could potentially just win the argument. So I discount that option. Given any form exclusivity is banned by 2016 amendment Zero Hours is not an option. Contract engagement with Ltds as personal service companies is not feasible given complexity for the workers and insurance reasons (likely HMRC reasons for the employer too).
This leaves part-time employment contacts but we do not have the clients or funding to provide any more than a few hours a week (along with the associated employment rights and costs).
SO: The solution I am thinking is 2h/week part-time work with narrow exclusively clauses and non solicitation of employer clients + a zero hours contract. All made transparent and clear to the employee. That allows variable hours for the employee and gives protection to us on clients. Thoughts?
I need to be able to engage workers with flexible hours based on demand. The work is relationship based and hard to predict. Before engaging workers this is made clear to them (the MO of the form) and so would any legal wording. The service provision is low cost to clients and the potential workers happy with the hourly rate.
Ordinarily this would mean zero hour contracts give the variability and low cost nature of the work. However, this service is very innovative and I don't want it easily replicated and secondly we source the clients (and so pay the costs of customer acquisition) so we want very narrow exclusively and non-solicitation for 4 months after leaving employment/engagement.
I have read the 2016 amendment to the 1996 Employment Rights Act.
Looking at all the circumstances there is a good case for these workers to be self-employed but I think HMRC could potentially just win the argument. So I discount that option. Given any form exclusivity is banned by 2016 amendment Zero Hours is not an option. Contract engagement with Ltds as personal service companies is not feasible given complexity for the workers and insurance reasons (likely HMRC reasons for the employer too).
This leaves part-time employment contacts but we do not have the clients or funding to provide any more than a few hours a week (along with the associated employment rights and costs).
SO: The solution I am thinking is 2h/week part-time work with narrow exclusively clauses and non solicitation of employer clients + a zero hours contract. All made transparent and clear to the employee. That allows variable hours for the employee and gives protection to us on clients. Thoughts?
