A skilled worker (e.g., electrician, plasterer, roofer) who works alone (i.e.,
does not employ a team to work for him or her), uses material supplied by
the business and is told what, where and when to do work;
An individual fitting windows for one company or a group of connected
entities, on a continuous basis, using equipment supplied by the business,
and travelling in or driving a company vehicle.
There will always be workers in the construction sector who are properly treated as
self-employed and paid through the RCT system. Examples include:
An electrician who has his or her own firm with a team of workers, is engaged
to wire a number of houses for a fixed fee, is free to send anyone he or she
wishes to undertake the work and can profit if it’s done more efficiently, i.e.,
in less time;
Any worker who provides their service through a corporate, i.e., they are not
engaged directly as an individual by the business (construction company),
rather the business engages another company to provide a service, which is
undertaken by the worker. In this case, the worker is an employee of the
service company, rather than the construction company.
It is not unusual for skilled workers in the construction industry to be both an
employee and self-employed, but not for the same or connected businesses. For
example, an electrician who is an employee for the majority of the week but
undertakes ad-hoc work for individual householders at the weekend would likely be
self-employed in respect of the weekend work, subject to application of the
framework.
All construction businesses should ensure they have reviewed all workers by
reference to the framework and treat relevant workers as employees, except where
they are clearly self-employed.
4.2.2 Part-time, casual and seasonal workers
There was a perception that when workers were engaged on a part-time or casual
basis, including specifically for one off shifts, they were not employees as there was
no continuous employment obligation. These engagements are particularly
prevalent in sectors such as agriculture (e.g., fruit pickers, drivers for silage
contractors, relief milkers), retail (e.g., shelf stockers, till operators, fuel pump
attendants), entertainment (e.g., extras on tv shows, ticket scanners in venues,
parking attendants) and catering (e.g., waiters and waitresses, bar tenders,
cleaners). Such workers are generally employed for their own service (i.e., they