Ireland's postmasters in dispute with union over potential move to self-employed tax status

Postmasters 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. Picture: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie

The Irish Postmasters Union has said it was merely “examining options” in suggesting to postmasters they could move from paying the PRSI of full-time employees to that of self-employed contractors.

At a recent meeting, union officials had floated the idea of postmasters moving voluntarily from PRSI-A to PRSI-S to potentially save An Post in the region of €5m in social insurance costs.

That suggestion comes at a time of tension between the union and Ireland’s 861 postmasters, some of whom are of the opinion their contracts with An Post amount to bogus self-employment, that is, where the work of a regular employee is performed but with none of the benefits of that status, such as holiday pay and pension contributions, received in return.

Earlier this year, 10 postmasters approached the Department of Social Protection’s employment status section, Scope, querying their social insurance status. They were told no investigation of their status would be necessary given they already pay PRSI class A — payable to people performing a ‘contract of service’, that is a typical employer-employee relationship.

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.

Last August, however, the Irish Postmasters’ Union issued a legal opinion to its members stating a key question arising from a Supreme Court decision handed down in October 2023 concerning employment status does not apply to them — effectively implying their status as self-employed was indisputable.

Of the union meeting regarding their PRSI class, one postmaster said: “They put it to us like ‘we came up with this idea’, and said there would be savings to the company which could be given to us. But that would be only a one-off payment. Alarm bells went off, as in, why would they suddenly come up with this?” they said.

The postmaster in question is of the opinion the move relates to the State’s auto-enrolment pension scheme, which comes into effect in September 2025, for which all workers paying PRSI class A would be eligible.

“Next year the opt-in pension comes in. On the A1 stamp, you’re classed as an employee so there’d be no way around it for the company,” the postmaster said.

However, a spokesperson for the postmasters’ union said it was now “not even unlikely, but extremely unlikely” that postmasters would be asked to switch PRSI status, and the union had been merely “evaluating the benefits of A versus S” given postmasters are “a special category of PRSI A, as they pay A but are seen as self-employed."

"The initial signals are that there aren’t any [benefits],” they said.