Our latest employment news roundup focuses upon the Labour Party's new 'single worker status' policy and the Government's new 'national disability strategy'.
Labour Party: New Policy On 'Single Worker Status'
In a new policy announcement, the Labour Party has unveiled a new policy proposal to introduce what it calls, 'single worker status', in which all but the genuinely self-employed would have the same employment rights (e.g. holiday pay, the national minimum wage, etc).
Currently, there are 3 categories of worker - employees, workers, and what are sometimes known as 'dependent contractors' or 'gig economy workers'. Under the Labour Party's new proposals, all of these different workers would have the same status, with the same employment rights from day 1. Hence, the term 'single worker status'. According to Labour, the policy is designed to provide workers with greater job security.
Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Employment Rights and Protections, Andy McDonald, stated in relation to the new single worker status policy: "Millions of workers are in insecure employment with low pay and few rights and protections, particularly key workers whose efforts got the country through the pandemic. A lack of basic rights and protections forces working people into poverty and insecurity..... We need a new deal for working people. Labour would ensure that all work balances the flexibility workers want with the security they deserve."
A review of modern working practices, including within the gig economy, was carried out by Matthew Taylor. His report, the Taylor Review, was published on the 11th July 2017. The Government's ultimate response to that review was its ‘Good Work Plan‘, which incorporates 51 of the 53 recommendations made within the Taylor Review. It is anticipated that the Good Work Plan will be incorporarted into the Government's employment bill, although that bill is not now expected until at least 2022 at the earliest.
Single worker status was not something that the Taylor Review recommended. Moreover, many argue that a single worker status woud undermine the Uk's flexible labour market and the self-employed. The director of policy at the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE), Andy Chamberlain, for example, argues that: "While it is absolutely right to try and clear the confusion in parts of the labour market such as the gig economy and secure rights for falsely self-employed people, it is essential to engage with the question of what exactly makes someone self-employed."
Chamberlain adds: "Without this, structural change could threaten the freedom, flexibility and livelihoods of genuine freelancers. Instead of attempting to roll all employment statuses into one, we propose clarifying the existing statuses."
The Government's New 'National Disability Strategy'
The Government has today launched its new 'National Disability Strategy'. Amongst a number of proposals, are included:-
- Access to work adjustment passports
- A consultation on whether to require employers with 250 employees or more to publish a disability workforce report
Currently, 28.6% less disabled people are employed proportionately, compared with non-disabled persons, and the National Disability Strategy is designed to narrow that gap through the above mentioned policies.
Nevertheless, critics argue that these proposals do not go far enough. The Chief Executive of Disability Rights UK, Kamran Mallick, for instance, argues that: "It's not just the numbers they employ but also where in their hierarchy they employ them, data around salary and pay to make sure disabled people are not employed just in entry-level jobs, but disabled people are being promoted and making it into senor role, decision making roles, positions of influence."
Furthermore, the chief executive of Scope, Mark Hodgkinson, stated: "Many of the short-term commitments made are to be welcomed, but the strategy as a whole falls short of the transformational plan that many disabled people expected and deserve. Unless we get clear detail beyond the next 12 months, it is difficult to see how life will be significantly different for the next generation of disabled people."
