06 Informed


News Update


Taylor’s report fails to provide freelances with improved rights


Tim Dawson


“Te government will act to ensure that the interests of employees on traditional contracts, the self- employed and those people working in the ‘gig’ economy are all properly protected,” said Prime Minister, Teresa May, launching Good Work, the Taylor Review Of Modern Employment Practices, on 11 July 2017.


Alas, the document itself did litle to


satisfy those supporting freelances. Indeed, the report’s centrepiece proposal, renaming those that the law currently terms ‘workers’ as ‘dependent contractors’ was condemned by the NUJ in a statement.


Te NEC meeting on 14 July resolved that: “Any worker providing labour or services to someone else’s business should have basic rights and protections to include rights to holiday and sick pay, rights to trade unions representation and recognition, and rights to the minimum wage. Tis would remove the


Mathew Taylor – disappointing report


need to rely on ‘employment status’ as a deciding factor. Te Taylor review represented an atempt to undermine the rights of atypical workers.” TUC general secretary, Frances


O’Grady, said: “We wanted this review to be bolder. Tis won’t end insecurity at work. A right to request guaranteed hours is no right at all for many workers trapped on zero-hours contracts.


Workers deserve the minimum wage for every minute they work, not just the time employers choose to pay them for.” Te report included several interesting ideas: it proposed an absence of a requirement to perform work personally should no longer be an automatic barrier to accessing basic employment rights. Shiſting emphasis from personal service to control would similarly allow new groups to enjoy workers’ rights. Finally, the report suggested shiſting the burden of proving whether an individual enjoys worker status from the individual to the employer – so, if an individual brought a claim that required them to be an employee, or a worker, it was for the employer to prove that they are not. Te trade-off for the concessions


suggested by Taylor is that tax and National Insurance responsibilities of the self-employed be equalised with those in employment, Given the government’s fragile majority, surely only a masochistic Chancellor would go for this proposal?


Sweet success won for Irish workers


Irish creative industry unions are gearing up to organise freelance workers in the arts and media sectors in Ireland aſter Dáil Eireann passed a landmark law restoring trade union rights to their members. Union leaders cut a cake to celebrate the long-fought for victory. Te Competition (Amendment)


Act, tabled by senator Ivana Back, restored the right of freelance workers to be collectively represented by trade unions. Competition law meant unions had faced criminal prosecution


for seeking to set rates, collectively represent or even publish fees guides for freelances. At a reception in Dublin in May, NUJ acting general secretary, Séamus Dooley, and SIPTU divisional organiser, Ethel Buckley, announced a recruitment strategy in the sectors covered by the legislation.


Séamus Dooley, said: “Tis is a


significant breakthrough for the trade union movement and shows the power of persistence. We should never have fallen victim to the Competition


Authority’s narrow view of workers or collective agreements. We know that freelance workers, especially young workers, face exploitation and desperately need trade union representation.”


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