Remove contractors from all internal email groups such as $All Staff, IR35 purposes

[CloudWalker]

Hi There,

I know there's been a lot of changes over the years but is it true for a contractor to be IR35 compliant they must be removed from "All Staff" email groups ?
Our CIO is asking, but not sure on the law as I remember getting all staff emails when I was contracting.

Thanks

[Paralytic]

Being on a client mailing list is a close to having no bearing on IR35 determination as to make it irrelevant.

Why is your CIO asking you?

[CloudWalker]

I thought so, Is there any official IR35 web info stating this so I can give him to calm his nerves

[mallisarealperson]

Funny this as I have in the past when using internal email of a clients put my company name in the signature. Sometimes I would be asked to remove it.

There can be security reasons why you would have an internal email and need to get all person's email notices. You could tell your CIO to get a distribution list just for contractors setup I suppose.

[Paralytic]

I thought so, Is there any official IR35 web info stating this so I can give him to calm his nerves

Official?

https://www.gov.uk/topic/business-tax/ir35

But, it's not easy reading, and the whole thing can be very nuanced.

Again, why is the CIO asking you? Does he not have an HR team?

[vetran]

IANAL

You could belong to an all_Freelancers email list which is part of all_staff email list which also includes all_employees, all_volunteers and all_directors.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dic.../english/staff

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/di.../english/staff

If an organization is staffed by particular people, they are the people who work for it.
They are staffed by volunteers. [be V-ed + by/with]
The center is staffed with highly trained physicians. [be V-ed by/with n]
The centre is staffed at all times. [be VERB-ed]
Some have regular clinics staffed by nursing officers. [VERB-ed]

Staff does not mandate employment. Volunteers aren't employed, many physicians are self employed.

Of course as mentioned HMRC will try to ignore it but the fact you are dealt with as a non employee can only help surely?

You may also want to be excluded from messages about pay and benefits that is sent to all_employees they are none of your business you hardly want to say I want a payrise!!

[d000hg]

I'm on my client's All Staff list which is used for things like office closures and stuff pertinent to everyone. I deduce they must also have an "all employees" list because I don't get invited to company-wide meetings but I don't know for sure.

If someone in admin who doesn't know what a contractor is routinely adds me to an email list I couldn't care less. If I get an email that's clearly about employee stuff I tend to ignore it, if I get a follow-up I'll explain it's not relevant (and possibly CC my Ltd so I have a papertrail).

[cojak]

If it's a French-owned company the CIO may be getting confused with French employment law.

I know that contractors can't be placed on a company's organisation chart without them gaining employment rights (which did cause some confusion and issues when trying to organise training for everyone).

That isn't a problem here.

[CloudWalker]

Thanks guys .

[ladymuck]

Email group membership is one of those things that, on its own, has very little significance but in a wider 'part and parcel' context can add another straw to the camel's back.

It's something to look at more holistically rather than in isolation.

It would be better if the client had a policy that is along the lines of vetran's suggestion. d000gh's experience is similar to what I've encountered in other organisations.

My best experience was being given a client email by my display name was Ladymuck (CONTRACTOR) which made it very clear that I wasn't staff and I received no company-wide comms other than those the dept manager opted to forward on to me.