Could gig economy workers have a right to claim backdated holiday pay? Charles Pigott reports
- Advocate General Tanchev has given an opinion which could open the way to substantial claims for backdated holiday pay from gig economy workers.
- This new approach would provide an added incentive for employers to get their workers’ employment status right at the outset of the relationship.
The Advocate General’s opinion in King v the Sash Window Workshop C-214/16 would put the onus squarely on employers to provide an ‘adequate facility’ for the exercise of the right to take paid annual leave under the Working Time Directive 2003/88/EC (WTD).
The opinion was given on 8 June 2017, in response to a request for a reference from the Court of Appeal. That followed an appeal by Mr King from the decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal [2015] IRLR 348. Mr King had been working as a commission only salesman since 1999. He had been categorised as self-employed, and had refused a new contract as an employee on different terms
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