Trainees and minimum wage

Case 3: The facts

Miss Fulcher was taken on as a trainee hairdresser in an arrangement set up by the Lifelong Learning unit of Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council (NPTLFL) and salon owner Mrs Rinaldi-Tranter. Under the agreement, Rinaldi-Tranter paid a “standard training allowance” of £50 a week to Fulcher, who gained work experience at the salon and had time off to attend college.

During the second year of the agreement, a National Minimum Wage (NMW) compliance officer visited the salon and found that Fulcher was working 40 hours a week for £50 (in fact, she was working a 35-hour week), meaning that she was being paid less than the NMW rate. NPTLFL said it believed that Fulcher had been exempt from the NMW regulations.

The ruling

Trainees are excluded from the NMW regulations during their first year of training; thereafter they are covered if they work under a contract of employment or any other contract where they have to “perform personally any work or services for another party to the contract”.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that Fulcher was a worker under this definition, and so was entitled to the NMW – it did not matter whether her contract was a contract of apprenticeship.