Bizarre Freelancing Law - Never Heard Of...

Hello all,

This is my first post and I'm hoping someone can answer this strange question.

I've been working for a large secretarial agency for two and a half years - all home based and freelance. They are not my only client but my largest and highest source of income. Firstly I was a typist (One of a bank of about 20 freelance typists). 11 months ago their only copy editor (also freelance) left and the agency approached me and offered me the full-time role on a self-employed basis. I am paid per 1000 words. I earn a decent full-time wage from this alone, but I still do small typing jobs through People per Hour and such.

Four months ago, and without warning, the agency took 80 per cent of the copy editing work in-house - no prior notice or warning. I guess this was fair enough as I am paid per 1000 words. It would have been polite to let me know though.

It didn't work out - the in-house team were swamped and couldn't cope with the workload. So they came back to me and asked if we could go back to our prior arrangement, to which I agreed (grateful but I wasn't going to tell them that!)

They have now proceeded to recruit at least three other freelance copy editors and have warned me that from March my workload will be capped so that I can physically not do more than 50% of the editing.

When I asked why, the agency told me that by law a (exact words) "home working contractor cannot fulfill more than 50% of a particular role in a company."

I have searched high and low to find out if this is true and cannot find a scrap of information to prove / disprove it.

Really am baffled. Any enlightenment would be gratefully received even if it's just so that I'm informed in the future.

Kind regards

G