Employing workers on a once off basis

skytl

I'm looking to hire some extra help with my business.

For example if we get 10 jobs in a given week, I could complete 7 myself but due to time constraints would ideally be able to hire someone else to complete the other three.

Could anyone advise on how this may work with regard to employment legislation etc?

It would be work that really varies from week to week. One week an employee could do 3 jobs for me, the next week only 1 and so on, it would really depend on how much work the business is getting.

Are people employed in this way seen as casual workers, what kind of contract do they get etc.

Asking them to register as self employed and paying them that way is another option but it does seem to be cheating the system a bit as they would, in reality, be an employee.

Advice please!??

johnty56

What type of business is it? Is it something where it would be quite normal to hire in sub contractors?

skytl

Cleaning business

I run the business and generally do the work myself however could do with help from someone else.

Can't really hire them for a set period of time on a set weekly wage though as the work is unreliable from month to month

Mrs OBumble

If you require them to be available whenever you require, then it's a zero-hour contract and you may face some extra issues.

But you can hire on a casual basis if they're free to turn down the work if it doesn't suit them.

dbran

Hi

You should set them up on the payroll on zero contract basis. If they are effectively employees then you cannot treat them as self employed. It does not matter how "casual" or "ad hoc" it is. If they are subject to your direction, cannot subcontract the work, partake of none of the risk and rewards of sound business management etc. they are employees.

If you get a revenue audit this will be the very first thing that they will be looking for. It could then prove very expensive if they go for emergency tax and gross up of the net salary.

dbran

skytl

dbran wrote: »

Hi

You should set them up on the payroll on zero contract basis. If they are effectively employees then you cannot treat them as self employed. It does not matter how "casual" or "ad hoc" it is. If they are subject to your direction, cannot subcontract the work, partake of none of the risk and rewards of sound business management etc. they are employees.

If you get a revenue audit this will be the very first thing that they will be looking for. It could then prove very expensive if they go for emergency tax and gross up of the net salary.

dbran

Thank you for the reply and advice

Set them up as an employee then and pay per hours worked per week, providing payslip etc seems to be the best way to go

Is there much difference between this route and hiring a 'casual worker' and paying per job?

Seems to be pretty much the same but I would be wary of getting caught out on something like holiday pay etc

skytl

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

If you require them to be available whenever you require, then it's a zero-hour contract and you may face some extra issues.

But you can hire on a casual basis if they're free to turn down the work if it doesn't suit them.

Thanks for the reply

I presume hiring someone on a casual basis where they could turn down the work if they wanted would still need a contract etc, although holiday pay and that kind of thing wouldn't apply?

Seems to be such a minefield regarding hiring someone but such are rules and regulations I suppose!

dbran

If they are employees they will have employment rights that you will need to factor into you costings. There will also be employers prsi and (as you probably know) some workers may want a certain amount of money, net, before they will work for you. There is also redundancy and unfair dismissal legislation to consider which can be a minefield for the unwary, but a well written contract of employment and employer handbook can be very useful here.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/employment_rights_and_duties/employer_obligations.html

The fact that they are able to turn down work does not necessarily mean that they are not employees. A good link to follow is here

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/rct/determining-the-correct-employment-status-of-a-worker.html

Best Regards


dbran

Mrs OBumble

skytl wrote: »

Thank you for the reply and advice

Set them up as an employee then and pay per hours worked per week, providing payslip etc seems to be the best way to go

Is there much difference between this route and hiring a 'casual worker' and paying per job?

Seems to be pretty much the same but I would be wary of getting caught out on something like holiday pay etc

There's a potential problem with paying per job: if a particular job takes extra long, it could be that the hourly rate you end up paying them is less than minimum wage, which could get you in hot water with NERA.

One option is to send them with the expectation that the job will take X hours, and that if for any reason this won't be achieved they are to contact you for further direction. Then you can either decide to pay for extra time (which you'd factored into the initial quote 'cos you knew the place was a mess) or handle it some other way.

Even if they're casual, they still get holiday pay, at 8% of the hours worked.

And I do hope you're factoring in employer PRSI, too. It can be costly.

TBH, your accountant should be advising on this sort of stuff.