Douglas Alexander MP has welcomed the Government’s announcement of a new consultation to clampdown on bogus self-employment and give vulnerable workers in East Lothian the rights and protections that they deserve.
Bogus self-employment is a practice whereby some businesses mislabel the employment status of their staff to avoid legal obligations, such as the National Minimum Wage or holiday pay.
This has led to a situation where staff are treated as workers day-to-day but are denied the core rights that they are entitled to. External research currently estimates that up to 900,000 people may currently be impacted by this, including parcel couriers, delivery drivers and gig economy workers.
Later this month the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade will launch the Government’s consultation seeking views on rebalancing Employment Tribunals and improving compliance with the framework by introducing a new legal assumption of worker status and de-emphasising the personal service test.
Welcoming the proposals, Douglas Alexander MP said:
“I’m delighted to be part of a Labour Government that is acting on the concerns of working people and businesses on the issue of bogus self-employment.
“This consultation could make a real difference for hundreds of workers in our area and ensure that every working person in East Lothian has the rights and protections that they deserve.”
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, Jonathan Reynolds, said:
“There is one area which both workers and businesses, raise with me repeatedly and that is bogus self-employment. It denies workers basic employment rights, undercuts businesses who are doing the right thing, and leaves people with the sense that playing by the rules doesn’t pay.
“Everyone can see this isn’t right. It is a fundamental question of fairness and I tell you now, we will put an end to it.”
These measures will shift the burden of proof in Employment Tribunals to the employer and ensure that workers are not labelled self-employed despite being under significant control.
The Government’s new support includes making proper health and safety more accessible, introducing real protections against blacklisting, and empowering self-employed people to provide written statements.
These new rights and protections build on the Government’s small business strategy, ‘Backing Your Business: Our Plan for Small and Medium Sized Businesses’, legislation to end late payments, and the Parental Pay and Leave Review assessing if current support is fair for self-employed parents.