Ministers Move Against Bogus Self-Employment Affecting 900,000 Workers
The government has opened a consultation on businesses that label staff as self-employed to avoid paying the minimum wage and holiday pay, citing estimates that up to 900,000 people are affected — among them couriers, delivery drivers and hairdressers. “When loopholes are exploited, people are denied their basic employment rights,” said Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary.
The package cuts both ways: the genuinely self-employed would gain a right to a written statement on each contract and wider protection against blacklisting. What it omits is the bigger promise. Labour committed in opposition to a single status of “worker” in employment law, and these proposals do not. Meri Ahlberg of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation calls them “a step forward” but warns that without single status and tax reform “it will still be cheaper to employ people in less secure jobs”, leaving millions without sick pay or parental pay. The incentive she describes is a tax one — a lever only the Budget can pull.