Bitter: Pimlico Plumbers chief executive Charlie Mullins
GARY SMITH’S Supreme Court victory has irked his employer, so-called celebrity plumber Charlie Mullins, but it will encourage other workers to challenge dodgy “self-employed” status they feel driven to adopt.
Mullins, the Pimlico Plumbers proprietor who recently switched political and financial allegiance from Tories to Liberal Democrats over their shared rejection of the EU referendum decision to leave, paints Smith as a bit of a wide boy rather than an exploited worker.
In his view, Smith is “a highly paid, highly skilled man who used a loophole in current employment law to set himself up for a double pay day” and Mullins cannot believe that the highest court in the land has backed his Court of Appeal decision.
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TONY BURKE says an International Labour Conference next month will try for a new convention to protect often super-exploited workers providing services such as ride-hailing (taxis) such as Uber as well as fast food and package delivery