UK & IRELAND DEAL
Enjoy a seven-night tour from Charitable Travel, with local pick up available, combining the highlights of North Wales with the enchanting landscapes of Dublin. Price from £549 per person is based on two people sharing (£120 single supplement applies) and includes return coach travel and ferry crossings, comfortable accommodation throughout (with dinner and breakfast), multiple excursions and scenic drives. Travel dates are for August 6 – 13, 2021. Book by March 15. By booking through Charitable Travel, a social enterprise travel agency, holidaymakers can donate 5% of their holiday price to a UK registered charity of their choice – at no extra cost.
For more on this tour or to book, visit charitable.travel/offer-details or call 020 3092 1288.
What the Dickens is the answer? Jack Wild found fame as the Artful Dodger in the film version of Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver! but the 15-year-old still had to fit in his classes at the Barbara Speake Stage School in London.
A WEST Midlands water and heating systems manufacturer has been bought out which has allowed its founders to exit the business.
Redditch-based Mikrofill was founded in the mid-1990s and specialises in producing pressurisation units for sealed system control, commercial grade boilers and water heaters.
It has been acquired in an undisclosed deal with Oxfordshire outfit Stuart Turner which turns 115 this year and is a manufacturer of domestic and industrial water-boosting pumps and systems.
Private equity firm LDC backed the management buyout of Stuart Turner in 2017 to help the business target further growth in the commercial pumps sector and support international expansion.
It has since acquired three complementary businesses following deals to buy out Fluid Water Solutions in 2019 and GAH Heating the previous year, with additional funding provided for this latest deal.
The acquisition of Mikrofill will significantly expand its range of products and services and, following the deal, Mikrofill will continue to operate as an independent entity but as part of Stuart Turner.
The transaction also provides an exit for Mikrofill’s founders Roger and Pat Cherrington.
Mr Cherrington said: “After 25 years of dedication, fine tuning our products and building a strong reputation in our market, the time has come to move the company along to the next level.
“In Stuart Turner, we see fantastic opportunities to become part of a bigger picture.
“I am sure the brand will continue to go from strength to strength and enter new markets.
“I wish all of the teams involved the greatest success and will be watching with interest.”
Stuart Turner’s chief executive Richard Harden added: “We are constantly exploring opportunities that can further enhance our market leading services.
“Mikrofill is an established leader in the pressurisation and hot water generation market so this acquisition plays a key role towards our goal of providing a complete heating and water powering solution.”
Banking facilities were provided by Barings and Stuart Turner was advised by Gateley and Orbis.
THE UK’s Supreme Court has ruled that Uber drivers who worked for the ride hailing app were not self-employed workers but employees.
The repercussions are immense in that those drivers, if deemed self-employed, would not be entitled to minimum wage, holiday pay, sick pay, and all the trappings expected with the protection of employment.
There are tests which have always been used to determine whether or not a person is employed or self-employed.
However, this case has brought clarity to the concept of employment status within the so-called gig economy.
The court found that Uber not only set the fares which affected how much drivers could earn, it also monitored their performance and penalised drivers who rejected too many requests.
This meant the drivers were akin to employees as the only way they could earn more money is by working longer hours. Therefore, it was a question of ‘control’ exerted by Uber over the drivers which was pivotal in the judgment.
However, it does raise difficult questions which the judgment tried to address, including when these workers became employees. Again, a very innocuous question but very difficult to answer.
The importance of this question cannot be overlooked because it goes to the root of the time that is counted for ‘working time’, ‘minimum wage’ and such like.
In the case of Uber, it was when the driver was in the relevant location with the app switched on, but what about those people with multiple apps such as Just Eat, Deliveroo and such like? Are these people also employed by multiple firms at the same time?
This case followed previous case law where courier drivers also benefited from employment status, but it is not just the UK that has to decide these difficult questions.
Similar questions are occurring within the EU. The ripples are far reaching as now Uber will face liability to pay 20 per cent VAT because it will be deemed to be a transport driver rather than an intermediary.