An Post and postmasters in row over employment status

Ireland’s 861 postmasters function as self-employed workers under a contract with An Post for the operation of each individual post office. File picture Denis Minihane

A number of Irish postmasters have claimed they are the subject of bogus self employment after being confirmed as de facto employees by the Department of Social Protection.

Recently, 10 postmasters approached the department’s employment status section Scope querying their social insurance status and were informed that no investigation of their status would be necessary given they already pay PRSI class A – that payable to people performing a ‘contract of service’, that is a typical employer-employee relationship.

Ireland’s 861 postmasters function as self-employed workers under a contract with An Post for the operation of each individual post office, with Scope noting in their response to the postmasters that “for tax purposes it is recognised that running a post office is akin to other self-employed ventures”, per an agreement dating from 1979 between the Department, An Post, and the Post Masters Union.

However, the postmasters who received their decision from Scope argue they should not be considered as self-employed given they have no control over their hours, place of work or salary, and given they are not allowed to sub-contract their own employment.

“We’re at the mercy of what An Post pays us,” one postmaster told the Irish Examiner. 

There is no way for us to know how we performed in our own office, it’s up to An Post to tell us what we’ve done.

“We’re under the complete direction of An Post at all times, punitively so, while suffering the costs of running a business. To all intents and purposes we are employees,” they added.

The postmasters cite the example of all post offices being required to open on Saturdays as evidence they have no control over the hours they work.

Bogus self employment is the issue of contractors doing the same work as full employees, but receiving none of the benefits of direct employment such as holiday and sick leave entitlements and pension contributions.

The issue is currently in the news on foot of a Scope review of nearly 700 employees at State broadcaster RTÉ, some of whom worked for more than 20 years as contractors before being let go without a pension.

A spokesperson for An Post said that postmasters are “self-employed independent small businesses who operate a contract awarded by An Post”.

Postmasters, like any other small business, have the responsibility for growing their own business. They have control over what they earn in commission based on the volume of transactions and sales they process.

In terms of hours, the spokesperson said that postmasters “voluntarily sign up to contracts which include hours of operation for their offices”, adding that postmasters “are very much at liberty to employ others to maintain the hours of operation".

One postmaster refuted this point saying that “of course we can employ others, but they can never be the actual postmaster”, adding that “we cannot subcontract in any way”.

The Scope postmasters believe their status as employees is vindicated by the Supreme Court’s Karshan judgement of last October, which found that Dominos Pizza delivery riders were de facto employees rather than contractors given they had no control over their hours and could not subcontract.

“We are a core function of An Post’s business, we use An Post branded offices, we have no input into the contract provided, and we can’t subcontract,” they said, adding that their contract also “involves an exchange of remuneration for the work”.

The An Post spokesperson disagreed with that assessment however, stating that “postmasters are treated for tax purposes by Revenue as self-employed contractors” and citing court decisions from 1988 and 1999 as precedent.