Excluded workers
[ch 4: page 102]Some groups of workers are excluded from the right to the national minimum wage. They include:
• the genuinely self-employed (see Chapter 2);
• share fishermen;
• genuine volunteers, and voluntary workers with a contract to work for expenses only for a voluntary organisation;
• family members and au pairs who are treated as one of the family;
• company directors;
• prisoners;
• higher and further education students on a work placement or “sandwich” course, as long as it lasts less than a year;
• workers on a government employment programme, e.g. the “Work Programme”;
• workers on a Job Centre Plus work trial for up to six months (aimed at unskilled young workers aged 16 – 24);
• workers on government pre-apprenticeship training courses;
• members of the armed forces; and
• schoolchildren aged under 16.