Supply teachers are exploring “Post Office-style” group litigation to take on umbrella companies over unlawful deductions from their salaries and missing holiday pay.
The National Supply Teachers Network (NSTN) is in talks with legal firm Contractors for Justice (C4J) with a view to taking supply agencies to the High Court.
Some agencies use umbrella firms to employ temporary workers, meaning they do not have responsibility for employment costs such as pension contributions and sick pay. But unions have long objected to a plethora of issues with such arrangements.
According to the Trades Union Congress, problems include “misleading” deductions from workers’ pay, “widespread” breaches of holiday pay and some workers even becoming “unwittingly embroiled in tax evasion schemes”.
