Self-Employed Workers

[Tillyella]

If you are paying a self-employed worker by the day how many hours a day should they work.

[fiction-factory]

Whatever you need them to do provided there is compliance with working time directive and you give required break(s).
Up to 12 hours shouldn't be a problem unless for example they are driving.
What is the role?

[fiction-factory]

Are you sure they are self employed though? If so, I think it may be up to them to choose their hours and it's up to you to say yeah or nay

[fiction-factory]

Is he/she a self-employed cruciverbalist?

[pixie374]

You agree it with them. There are no set hours.

[Buenchico]

Anyone who is genuinely self-employed is free to determine their own hours. There are no rules about minimum pay, maximum hours or break allowances and no entitlement to holiday pay or sick pay.

So if, say, you've engaged the services of a self-employed builder (to complete specific task) it's up to him/her to come to an agreement with you as to how many hours he/she will work for and at what rate of pay.

However if you're regularly using the services of someone, on a long-term basis, (where they're only working for you and not for other people as well), you MUST enter into an employer-employee relationship with them. You MUST then give them paid holidays, sick pay and everything else which an employee is entitled to.

[fiction-factory]

^... and that can include paying employer NI, maybe workplace pension, sick pay, holiday pay and maternity pay

[Old_Geezer]

You should insist that they get at least one down. Or you'll come across badly.

[pixie374]

The question looks as though you have agreed a price per day, but not how many hours they will work. Is that right?

[Buenchico]

If Pixie's assumption is correct, I'd probably expect a 'working day' to be at least 7 hours long (e.g. 9 to 5, with an hour off for lunch). However that could include things like going to a builders' merchant to collect supplies, etc.