Gig Economy Update

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) recently published a report on ‘insecure work’. According to the report, 3.2 million people in the UK currently have ‘insecure work’ which was defined as being engaged:

• as a zero-hours worker;
• as an agency worker;
• in temporary work; or
• in low paid self-employment.

The report makes numerous recommendations to improve worker security, (many of which were found in the recent Labour manifesto). Some of the recommendations include:

• introducing a rebuttable presumption of “employment” status;
• giving individuals on zero-hours contracts who work regular hours the right to a written contract with guaranteed hours;
• ending the “Swedish derogation” model which provides for agency workers to be paid in between assignments and on a lower rate than employees; and
• introducing a requirement for companies to explain within annual reports their use (and their supply chain’s use)of zero-hours contracts and agency workers

A link to the full report may be found here.

Matthew Taylor, chair of the Independent Review of Employment Practices in the Modern Economy also spoke at the TUC conference. He was critical of what he described as the “one-way flexibility” in favour of employers in the current gig economy. He did however indicate that his review would not advocate banning zero-hours contracts in their entirety. He also confirmed the review will be released in the next few weeks – watch this space for further updates.