Offering Internships? You May Have to Pay the National Minimum Wage

Employers who offer unpaid internships often feel that they are acting benevolently in giving inexperienced people a chance to learn the ropes. However, many interns have a legal right to be paid the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and, as one case showed, a failure to remunerate them accordingly…

Aug 17, 2022

Pexels christina morillo 1181406 1024x684

The case concerned two former unpaid interns at an online publishing company who complained to HM Revenue and Customs that they had not been paid the NMW. An investigation ensued, which culminated in the company being issued with a notice of underpayment. It was directed to pay the interns a total of more than £5,000 and received a penalty of £9,207 for its failure to pay the NMW.

Challenging that outcome, the company asserted that the interns were not ‘workers’ within the meaning of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and were therefore not entitled to receive the NMW. It said that they were mainly engaged in shadowing experienced personnel and that tasks they performed were for their own benefit and of no benefit to the company. It contended that, had it considered them workers, it would have sacked them for their slow and under-par performance.

Rejecting the appeal, however, an Employment Tribunal noted that, by virtue of Section 28 of the Act, there is a presumption that an individual qualifies for the NMW unless proved otherwise. The interns, who were not students or volunteers, did not fall into the category of workers undergoing training or work experience who are excluded from entitlement to the NMW.

Their roles were not confined to shadowing and some of the tasks they carried out were clearly in furtherance of the company’s business. The suggestion that they provided no benefit to the company was disingenuous. There was a verbal contract between them and the company, and they were expected to work to it. They could not substitute others to perform their tasks and, far from being free to come and go as they pleased, they were required to be in the office for eight hours a day.

Workplace Safety – Anxious Shop Worker Succeeds in Unfair Dismissal Claim

Aggressive customers are the bane of many shop workers’ lives and those workers are entitled to have their concerns for their safety at work fully addressed by their employers. An Employment Tribunal (ET) powerfully made that point in upholding a retail worker’s unfair dismissal complaint. The customer assistant had been on sick leave for several months, suffering from anxiety and depression, prior to her dismissal. She was concerned about the risk of infection with COVID-19 at work and said…

Chair-Renting Hairdresser Remained an Employee – Guideline ET Ruling

Many hairdressers rent chairs from salons, paying a percentage of their takings to salon owners. However, as an Employment Tribunal (ET) ruling made plain, their apparent self-employed status is in many cases illusory. The case concerned a stylist who was employed at a salon for a decade before she purportedly made the transition to self-employed status. She was eager to be paid on a self-employed basis, actively pursuing the change in the belief that she would be better off by £600 a month.…

Waitress Accused of Stealing from the Till Succeeds in Unfair Dismissal Claim

A genuine and honest belief that an employee is guilty of gross misconduct is not, by itself, a viable defence to an unfair dismissal claim. An Employment Tribunal (ET) made that point in awarding compensation to a restaurant waitress who was sacked after being accused of pilfering money from the till. On reviewing the restaurant’s accounts, its owner said he discovered that till receipts were down by modest but round figures on a number of days. Referring to his diary entries, he asserted that…