Pimlico Plumbers Ought To Be Reviewing their Options?

Charlie Mullins is the flamboyant founder & CEO of Pimlico Plumbers. Leaving school at age fifteen, Mr Mullins has built up Pimlico Plumbers, a multimillion pound company, London's largest independent plumbing company. Mr Mullins drives a Bentley, has a villa in Marbella a London Penthouse and rubs shoulders with celebrities and the ‘well-to-do’, many of whom are his customers.

Mr Mullins has recently been in the media for a different reason; a high profile Working Time Regulations legal case. 

Plumber Gary Smith, worked for Pimlico Plumbers for six years until 2011. Mr Smith won an employment tribunal, challenging the firm’s view that he was self-employed. Pimlico Plumbers also lost the appeal and are now taking the case to the UK’s Supreme Court of Justice, in a final bid to overturn the original decision. 

A string of labour disputes has since arisen as staff from firms such as Uber, Deliveroo and CitySprint have fought to have their status upgraded to that of workers or employees. 

The background to the case is that plumber Gary Smith had had a heart attack and wanted to reduce his hours. He had worked for Pimlico for six years when he suffered a heart attack in 2010, claiming he should be entitled to sick pay and asking to cut his week down to three days from five.

The firm argued Smith was an “independent contractor” rather than a worker or employee, as he was VAT-registered and paid tax on a self-employed basis. Smith argued he was entitled to basic workers’ rights, which also include the national minimum wage and paid holiday.

A tribunal ruled that the plumbers were workers but not employees, which Pimlico appealed, but The Court of Appeal upheld the decision. This ruling and others like it such as the Uber case are having a major impact on the Gig Economy and those frequently working in insecure, short-term and often low paid employment.

Poor Mr Smith had a heart attack, yet he has been forced to battle Mr Mullins for six years. 

Image: Pimlico Plumbers vans. 

We caught up with Mr Mullins, PR Team to organise some Q&A’s. Unfortunately, we have never had the answers!  We think the Uber ruling sends out a clear message to the tax avoiders, that the struggling public who pay their taxes, lack sympathy these days with business-folk avoiding paying their taxes. Good luck to Mr Mullins if he pursues his Supreme Court Appeal, but if you pardon the pun, it could be money straight down the toilet?

From earlier this year: 

Press Release

PIMLICO PLUMBERS TO TAKE SELF-EMPLOYMENT CASE RULING TO THE SUPREME COURT!

Tuesday 8th August 2017

Pimlico Plumbers has been granted permission to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal, which ruled that one of the company’s former self-employed plumbers was entitled to employment rights.

CEO Charlie Mullins will take the case to the Supreme Court to appeal the case of Gary Smith, who despite being paid more than £500,000 over three years by Pimlico Plumbers, sued for employment rights, even though he signed a contract as a self-employed contractor.

The case, which has been running for more than six years, was heard by the Court of Appeal in February; however, the Supreme Court will now review the decision.

Charlie Mullins said: “It’s wonderful that we have been granted permission to appeal our long-running and potentially ground breaking employment case to the Supreme Court. I have always maintained that Mr Smith was a self-employed contractor, and to my mind the evidence overwhelmingly supports our position.  

“Let me be crystal clear, I completely condemn disreputable companies who are using fake self-employment to swindle workers out of pay and conditions, however at Pimlico Plumbers we are not doing that.  It is my determined aim to convince the Supreme Court that by using self-employed status, Pimlico Plumbers is doing nothing wrong, and what's more is both morally and legally in the right.

“The ramifications of this case will impact upon many thousands of companies in the building industry and beyond and potentially affect the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of UK workers.  I am needless to say incredibly grateful that the Supreme Court has agreed to look again at the case.”

Charlie added: “Throughout this long legal process there has been a lot of confusion and misinformation.  Often the case has been reported in the media alongside claims from arguably exploited people engaged in low paid and unskilled tasks, like Uber drivers and Deliveroo food couriers.  

“There is, in reality, no comparison between a skilled trades person, like a plumber earning £150,000 a year, and a bike courier or mini-cab driver, struggling to make minimum wage.  My people have great conditions and command huge money by virtue of their skills, and if they didn't wear my uniform they can make almost as good a living elsewhere.  

“There are exploited workers and there are Pimlico Plumbers and the two quite literally live in different worlds; the later have big houses, expensive cars, great holidays and can send their children to the best schools.

“This is the distinction that we are hoping to make clear to the Supreme Court.  And to that end I was extremely buoyed by Matthew Taylor's Review of Modern Working Practices, which identified a class of worker it called 'Dependent Contractors', who it felt were the true victims of a morally suspect use of self-employment.

“My people, with their heavily in demand, readily transferable skills, are in no way dependent on anyone or any company.”