Freelance Working Time breakthrough

BECTU continues to fight for freelances' right to be protected under the Working Time Regulations.

The most significant recent development affects Schedule D freelances. On this issue, the chief trouble-makers are not the employers but the Inland Revenue.

The Revenue argue that Schedule D freelances are not covered by the Working Time Regulations because they are not employees. BECTU's lawyers say that this is wrong, because the Regulations go out of their way to refer to the broad category of "workers" rather than the narrow category of "employees".

The union's position has been bolstered by two recent cases. One concerns a Schedule D freelance Carpenter engaged by a theatre. The other concerns a TV freelance with Schedule D status, engaged by an independent production company.

In both cases, they were unable to take all of their holiday entitlement during the contract; in both cases the employer refused to pay for holiday accrued but not taken; in both cases Employment Tribunal claims were lodged; and in both cases the employers agreed to a financial settlement before the claim reached the Tribunal.

BECTU therefore has two pieces of advice for Schedule D freelances:

• Firstly, don't give up on your rights. If your work schedule is determined by an employer, then you are covered by the Working Time Regulations including the right to paid holidays.

• Secondly, if your employers are nervous about getting in the Inland Revenue's bad books, then a fall-back position is for them to give you paid holidays as a contractual condition without any reference to the Working Time Regulations. This is what PACT is recommending its member companies to do.