UK umbrella company Orange Genie has been accused of ‘salary skimming’ a term used to describe unlawfully deducting money from contractors’ payslips.
According to an article in Contractor Voice, the company has allegedly been ‘skimming’ £2 from its contractors’ payslips for over five years, and disguising the deductions as “employment cost, including employer national insurance” resulting in “at least” £4m in additional revenue.
“None of the Orange Genie payslips that we have seen and audited include an itemised breakdown of the hidden £2, and only becomes visible following a payslip audit,” Contract Voice’s article says.
The article in the freelancer news and campaign publication was published on 31st October and is urging the Freelancer & Contractor Services Association (FCSA) to remove Orange Genie from its list of members “without delay”. All contractors and agencies should also cut ties with the firm, it says.
“Contractor Voice can see no reason why the FCSA wouldn’t remove Orange Genie from its memberships, and it is anticipated that contractors and agencies will leave in their droves.
“The FCSA has allowed this malpractice to go unchecked and perpetuate. [It] has been complicit, and the buck must stop with it.”
Orange Genie has told the online trade publication, Accountancy Age that it is “in extensive dialogue with the FCSA and will comment further in due course” and that Contractor Voice is in a potential breach of the UK GDPR directly related to the source of its information, in addition to providing legal communication regarding “defamatory, misleading and inaccurate statements”.
Julia Kermode, founder of the freelancer support platform IWORK believes that this case has highlighted the need for third-party checks to verify the umbrella’s financial processes. She said: “All too often any malpractice with contractors’ income takes place within the umbrella before the money reaches their payroll system. This can easily go undetected if the net pay seems in the right ballpark.
“It’s about time the supply chain woke up to their moral duty to protect their whole workforce from exploitation, and properly scrutinise suppliers’ processes to ensure workers receive the full pay they’re entitled to.”
