ASK ALYS...

Alys Cunningham, a lawyer with Unite the Union, answers your workplace

QI’m a self-employed builder who uses an online “platform” to get work. Recently the platform changed its rules so we now have to pay if we just get shortlisted for the job via the website. Is that legal? So many builders now use the platform it’s hard to find work without it. Ben, Gillingham, Kent

Alys says:

If you’re self-employed, your deal with the website firm will be determined by the contract you agree(d) with them. You need to look at if the contract authorised the payments to determine whether you are obliged to pay.

However, contract terms can change subject to agreement of both parties or an ability to walk away.

Unfortunately, if you are genuinely self-employed, you won’t have the benefit of employee or worker legal protections. When I say “genuinely self-employed”, I mean someone who is operating a business on their own account, determines their own terms and receives business profits.

What we are seeing increasingly is workers being forced into accepting bogus self-employment, when the reality of the working relationship is an organisation is controlling, and profiting, from the work they do, but failing to provide worker rights.

Online platforms are often prime culprits. Employment tribunals have seen through several “gig-economy” firms already, confirming individuals to be workers.