1 May 2017

Work and Pensions Committee publishes report on self-employment and the gig economy

The Work and Pensions Committee have today published their report 'Self-employment and the gig Economy', following their recent inquiry into the subject. Although the inquiry has had to be curtailed because of the election, the Committee heard from a number of gig economy companies and from drivers who work for them. The Committee also explored how Universal Credit will work for the self-employed. 

The report concludes:

Frank Field, Chair of the Committee said:

"Companies in the gig economy are free-riding on the welfare state, avoiding all their responsibilities to profit from this bogus "self-employed" designation while ordinary tax-payers pick up the tab. This inquiry has convinced me of the need to offer "worker" status to the drivers who work with those companies as the default option. This status would be a much fairer reflection of the work they undertake which seems to fall between what most of us would think of as "self-employed" or "employed". 

It would also protect them from some of the appalling practices that have been reported to the Committee in this inquiry. Uber’s recent announcement that it will soon charge its drivers for sickness cover is just another way of pushing costs onto the workforce, to reinforce the impression that those workers are self-employed.

Self-employment can be genuinely flexible and rewarding for many, but “workers” and “employees” can and do work flexibly. Flexibility is not the preserve of poorly paid, unstable contractors, nor does the brand of “flexibility” on offer from these gig economy companies seem reciprocal. It is clearly profit and profit only that is the motive for designating workers as self-employed. The companies get all the benefits, while workers take on all the risks and the state will be expected to pick up the tab, with little contribution from the companies involved.

It is up to Government to close the loopholes that are currently being exploited by these companies, as part of a necessary and wide ranging reform to the regulation of corporate behaviour."