Lucy McLynn, partner in our Employment team, has provided comment to The Independent over the news that Boots could be risking investigation under minimum wage legislation after recruiting hundreds of volunteers to carry out coronavirus testing for the government.
Lucy has commented that treating the testers as volunteers “feels pretty abusive” and may fall foul of minimum wage legislation, which is policed by HM Revenue and Customs.
The law exempts charities and fundraising bodies from the requirement to pay the £8.72-an-hour national living wage to people volunteering to help them, but does not allow companies to treat people as volunteers if they are taking the role of a worker, she explained. Going on to comment that “Boots are in rather dangerous territory with this, because the time commitment suggests these people are more like workers,”