5th May 2014, 04:03 PM
Real "Self-Employment" gives the worker flexibility that I seriously doubt the Avon job can afford. HMRC gets upset because false "self-employed" folks allow their de-facto employers to cheat the taxman of all those NICs and PAYE taxes etc that employers have to pay, and of course any such self-employed worker with a brain will find enough allowable deductions to reduce their own tax bill (on net profit, not total turn-over) to a pittance. Who loses out? Just the rest of us tax-paying deadbeats, of course!
If Avon are really offering total control & flexibility to these workers to turn up when they want, do the work however they see fit, and use their own tools/office, then they are truly self-employed. It could be that Avon just wants some really underpaid free-wheeling "men in the region" to troubleshoot whenever some archaeology arises, rather than just wanting full-time bodies on a dig as we all assume. But if they DO have to turn up for set hours on fixed days, take directions from a supervisor, use the company tools/site hut, and get a weekly/monthly wage instead of sending in an invoice on completion of a job, they aren't self-employed. And if BAJR is allowing such a con on this website, that would be deeply worrying. I assume Mr Bajr checked it out most carefully...
Unless, of course, they are hard-working full-time underpaid BBC execs or famous comedians, in which case they deserve the security of full-time "self employment" while their accountants fiddle the tax bill down to nought...
If Avon are really offering total control & flexibility to these workers to turn up when they want, do the work however they see fit, and use their own tools/office, then they are truly self-employed. It could be that Avon just wants some really underpaid free-wheeling "men in the region" to troubleshoot whenever some archaeology arises, rather than just wanting full-time bodies on a dig as we all assume. But if they DO have to turn up for set hours on fixed days, take directions from a supervisor, use the company tools/site hut, and get a weekly/monthly wage instead of sending in an invoice on completion of a job, they aren't self-employed. And if BAJR is allowing such a con on this website, that would be deeply worrying. I assume Mr Bajr checked it out most carefully...
Unless, of course, they are hard-working full-time underpaid BBC execs or famous comedians, in which case they deserve the security of full-time "self employment" while their accountants fiddle the tax bill down to nought...