Amina worked in a Dublin restaurant for eighteen months, putting in long shifts most days of the week. Her employer told her she was an independent contractor and paid her a flat weekly rate of €200. That worked out to just over €6 per hour once you counted all the hours she actually worked. At the time, the national minimum wage was €11.30 per hour. The gap between what she was paid and what she should have been paid kept growing, and she realised something wasn't right.
Despite being called self-employed, Amina had no real control over her working life. Her employer set her hours each week. She had to use the restaurant's equipment and follow their procedures. She couldn't send someone else to do her shifts or take on other work during those hours. She wasn't free to work for competitors. None of this felt like independence—it felt like a job. After discussing her situation with people she trusted, Amina decided to get legal advice.
A solicitor reviewed her arrangement and confirmed what Amina suspected: the law would see her as an employee, not a contractor. Her employer had misclassified her to avoid paying minimum wage. The solicitor helped her pursue a claim for unpaid wages—the difference between what she'd actually received and what she should have earned under minimum wage law. Within a few months, her employer agreed to settle. Amina received the full arrears she was owed, plus interest. She also got her job back on the proper basis, paid at the legal minimum wage.