What is the status of workers engaged on casual or zero hours contracts?
When does a temporary or casual worker become an employee?
Regrettably, there is no simple answer to this question. If an employer
engages people on an ad hoc basis to help out during staff shortages or
at busy times of the year, or when an emergency arises, knowing full well that
they may or may not be available when it needs them, then they will not be
employees. But, if it regularises the arrangement with those workers and
undertakes to provide them with work on specified days and at specified times
of the week, on the understanding (accepted by them) that they will present
themselves for work on those days and at those times, the chances are that the
relationship between the employer and the workers will change to that of
employer and employees. In the final analysis, it will be for the tribunals and
courts to determine the true nature of the contractual relationship between an
employer and a worker.
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