Unfair termination for regulated road transport contractors

You are protected from unfair termination if:

• you are a regulated road transport contractor, performing work in the
  road transport industry
  under a
  services contract
  ,
• a road transport business receives services from you because of your services contract, and
• you have been working in the
  road transport industry
  under a services contract or a series of services contracts for at least 6 months.

Note: work performed before the laws start on 26 August 2024 does not count towards the 6 months.

Regulated road transport contractors:  

• perform work in the road transport industry under a services contract, and
• are not employee-like workers.

They are not employees.

To be able (eligible) to apply to us, your annual earnings must be less than the contractor high income threshold.

You have been terminated if:

• you worked as a regulated road transport contractor under a services contract
• a road transport business received services under the services contract, and
• the services contract was terminated by, or because of something the road transport business did.

The Road Transport Industry Termination Code  sets out a process for road transport businesses to follow if they are considering terminating a regulated road transport contractor’s services contract. They must follow the Code if:

• you are protected from unfair termination
• the termination is because you cannot do the job (capacity) or you have behaved badly (conduct).

They do not need to follow the Code process if the termination is because of your serious misconduct.

The Code deals with things like:

• matters that are or might be a valid reason for termination
• processes for termination
• the right of response
• communication between the regulated road transport contractor and the road transport business about termination.

If we decide that a termination wasn’t consistent with the Code, we can consider whether it was unfair.

To decide if your termination is unfair we will consider:

• whether there was a good (valid) reason for the termination because you could not do the job (capacity) or you behaved badly (conduct)
• whether any processes in the Road Transport Industry Termination Code were followed, and
• anything else that we think is relevant.

If we decide that:

• you are protected by law from unfair termination, and
• you have been unfairly terminated

we may order that a new services contract be made. 

The new contract may have the same terms, or it may be changed (varied) in a way that we think is appropriate. If we order a new contract, we may also order the road transport business to pay you any money you lost because of the termination.

If we think that a new services contract would not be appropriate, we can order that you be paid compensation instead.

The maximum compensation we can order is the lower of these 2 amounts:

• the amount you were paid, or should have been paid (whichever is higher), for working under the services contract during the 26 weeks (6 months) immediately before the termination, or
• half the amount that the contractor high income threshold was immediately before the termination happened. Find out more about the contractor high income threshold .

There are other things we need to consider when deciding how much compensation you should be paid. These are:

• how the compensation order would affect the road transport business
• how much you would have been paid if you were not terminated
• anything you did to make up the pay you lost because of the termination
• how much you earned (if anything) between the time of your termination and when we make an order
• how much you might earn between when we make the compensation order and when you get the compensation, and
• anything else we think is relevant.

You can find out more about the process for unfair termination claims.

To apply: Form F90 – Apply for unfair termination (for regulated workers)

You must apply within 21 calendar days after the termination. We can sometimes extend this if there are exceptional circumstances.