A group of 26 “tied agents” who have taken an unfair dismissals case against an insurance company had to engage in motivational chants such as “I feel happy, I feel healthy, I feel terrific” and clapping hands as part of the sales ethos insisted on by the company, the Employment Appeals Tribunal heard yesterday.
The tribunal must determine if the individuals were employed under a a contract of service with Combined Insurance Company of Europe Limited, in other words as employees, or whether theirs were contracts for services, meaning they were self-employed.
Michael McLaughlin of Portsalon in Co Donegal told the tribunal he had joined the company as a sales representative in 1998 and was made a manager within about six months. He said the motivational chants were part of the ethos insisted on by the company which, he said, he “hated every minute” of but “had no choice” in.
He said his understanding was he was a full-time employee who, for tax purposes, was self-employed. Although his contract stated he could carry out other work, Mr McLaughlin said he was not allowed to work for anyone else.
Reprimanded
He said that, in his role as sales representative selling health and accident policies, he would be reprimanded if he sold insurance outside the geographic area set out by the company, the location of which changed on a month-to-month basis.
Mr McLaughlin said he would either cold-call properties or visit existing customers to sell them upgrades. He said he repeated “word for word” a script prepared by the insurance company adding that “the only thing you were allowed to differ was your smile”. He said he worked from 9am, when a daily meeting was held, rang his superiors three or four times and day and finished at 9pm when he would call his managers with his “scores”. He described the work as “very robotic” with “a lot of pressure involved”.
As a manager Mr McLaughlin said he spent much of his time interviewing and training new sales representatives which took up a lot of time due to the high turnover of staff.
Marguerite Bolger, SC representing the individuals, said she found it “spectacular” the individuals could be considered to be anything but employees as they were “tracked” from morning to night, told exactly where to work, told when they could take their meals and could not work for anyone else.
There was no opportunity for cross-examination of the first witness yesterday. However, Marcus Dowling for the insurance company, pointed to the 2004 High Court case Castleisland Cattle Breeding Society Ltd v Minister for Social and Family Affairs in which he said it was accepted that the individual taking the case was self-employed and not an employee, adding that the tribunal should not have to look beyond that judgment.
The case will resume on April 11th. In 2011 Combined Insurance Company of Europe Limited was fined €3.35 million by the Central Bank.