Forced to go self employed by boss

[kikimon]

My partners boss is thinking of making him go self employed. Can he just do this? He has worked for this company for over 10 years so should he be made redundant first so he can get redunancy payment? The business he is in was hit by the recession but things are looking up. It is not easy though to find his own jobs if his boss is not providing him with enough work while being self employed. What rights has he got?

[Teleph0ne]

I would imagine that his boss is trying to get away without paying redundancy and save himself employers NI contributions and holliday pay. There is nothing wrong with going freelance, I have never looked back but he would need to negotiate a payrise to cover his holliday money and be aware that should he be unemployed later on then his benefit entitlement would be significantly reduced. I would want to get redundancy pay though and not do it voluntarily. Is his boss a good employer that can be trusted?

[dothawkes31]

It depends on how many people work there too, if it is only one or two then very few laws apply over redundancy as far as i can recall,

[kikimon]

Thank you both for your replies. There is a lot to think about. Might pop into the CAB to see what they can tell us. There are 7 employees. Thanks again

[dothawkes31]

Ring ACAS first I think their number was 08457 474747, we used them last year when we were being made redundent and they were excellent

[MarkRae]

Slightly tangential to the thread, I became self-employed over 15 years ago and it was the best thing I ever did...

[kikimon]

Will do dothawkes. thanks.

[buildersmate]

If the boss is proposing to cease employing your partner on one day, but set up a contract with him on a self-employed contract the next, this is a complete non-starter.
Employers/employees don't have a choice in the matter - HMRC have a series of tests about self-employment, and doing what is proposed will surely fail several of the tests.
See here (read down a bit).
http://www.hmrc.gov.u...ment-status/index.htm
Secondly, since his contract is effectively being terminated against his will and yet it isn't a redundancy, it is going to be difficult to see that this could be anything other than unfair dismissal. If your partner feels threatened by this (and he doesn't want to do it), he should merely say that he considers that the dismissal would be unfair and would seek redress through an Employment Tribunal. That should make the boss sit up a bit. No doubt ACAS will say much the same.

The law on redundancy (in terms of the rights of the individal) are much the same whether one person is affected or several thousand - so I really don't know what Dot is talking about (the timing of the consultation is more fixed when the numbers are bigger).

[kikimon]

Thank you all for your advice