{"id":12930,"date":"2017-08-04T11:31:52","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T10:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=12930"},"modified":"2017-08-04T14:40:30","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T13:40:30","slug":"out-of-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=12930","title":{"rendered":"‘Out of control’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The number of people considered self-employed has risen to a record-breaking high, now comprising 15 per cent of the entire workforce.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think for a second that this army of self-employed are happily earning their living being their own bosses. Tax loopholes and lack of clarity in the law allow employers to take advantage by misclassifying those who work from them as self-employed, in the process robbing workers of key employment rights and protections, while depriving the exchequer of billions in lost tax revenues each year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bogus self-employment is most rife in construction, an industry that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plagued by health and safety issues, low productivity and a growing workforce retention problem.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shocking new figures uncovered by Unite this week (July 31) in a freedom of information request show that the problem of false self-employment is only getting worse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shady practice<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Unite found that in 2016\/17, over a million construction workers were paid via the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS), the standalone tax system for construction under which workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201d despite the vast majority of them having employment characteristics of a full-time employee \u00e2\u20ac\u201d are normally classified as self-employed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is up a massive 8 per cent from last year, when 992,973 were paid under the Scheme. Now, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been estimated that nearly half of all construction workers are paid under the CIS, mostly bogusly self-employed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a shady practice but\u00c2\u00a0 employers have\u00c2\u00a0every\u00c2\u00a0reason to maintain\u00c2\u00a0this system\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u201c misclassifying their workers as self-employed means they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to pay 13.5 per cent in employers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 national insurance contributions, and they likewise don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pay holiday or sick pay.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Taxpayers lose out too \u00e2\u20ac\u201c bogus self-employment costs the Treasury in excess of \u00c2\u01412.5bn each year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said that the latest figures \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdemonstrate that bogus self-employment in construction is out of control.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEmployers are simply ignoring the rules in order to line their pockets and deny workers their rights,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And even when the government has tried to clamp down on bogus self-employment, as it did in 2014, the construction industry \u00e2\u20ac\u201c bent on cutting costs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c found yet another way to shirk paying tax and in so doing strip construction workers of decent wages, rights and protections.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Employment agencies started using complex \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and\u00c2\u00a0usually\u00c2\u00a0legal \u00e2\u20ac\u201c payment structures through what are known as umbrella companies. Agencies, no longer able to misclassify the workers they recruit as self-employed after reforms in 2014, instead paid their workers through these umbrella companies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Technically employed by the umbrella company, workers are forced to pay both employers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and their own national insurance contributions, and other fees deducted by the company for processing their pay.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Under this payment structure, construction workers lose out on, in some cases, thousands of pounds a year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been conservatively estimated that nearly half a million construction workers are paid by umbrella companies, which flourished after 2014 self-employment reforms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The much-anticipated Taylor Review published last month<\/a>, which many had hoped would tackle bogus self-employment plaguing the construction industry and clamp down on umbrella companies, briefly identified the problem but offered no solution.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have huge numbers of construction workers being routinely exploited via the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own tax scheme and via umbrella companies and yet the Taylor Review has ducked these issues,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Cartmail argued.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTaylor talks about his seven principles for fair and decent work which includes workplace training and the health and wellbeing of workers but while the real employer can continue to divest themselves of their workforce and have no responsibility for them, his principles are nothing but warm words,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reform<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Warm words for workers from the Conservative government are nothing new. Under Theresa May and her predecessor, pledges on workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights have all been watered down as the government defends business interests, even as it pretends to stand up for workers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Underpinning its inaction on exploitative work arrangements is an absurd argument the government uses time and again — that workers actually want the so-called flexibility offered by agencies and self-employment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But a new survey by the Joint Industry Board (JIB), that sets the standards for employment, welfare, and apprentice training in the electrical contracting industry, revealed that 84 per cent of electricians want to be directly employed, rather than employed via an agency in order to receive full employment rights, paid holidays and benefits.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cartmail noted that this survey \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdestroys the myth that construction workers want the flexibility to operate via agencies or be self-employed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat workers want is to do know they are going to receive a steady wage and have the security of regular employment.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She went on to say that big changes in the law are needed to make a difference for construction workers struggling on slumping wages and declining rights.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe only way that workers will be treated fairly and decently is by introducing clear rules which ensure that workers are either genuinely self-employed or paid by a standard PAYE method,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWithout such a reform, productivity in construction will remain low, accidents and ill health will be high and the industry will fail to train sufficient numbers of apprentices.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Such reform has been put forward by the Labour Party, which has pledged to ban umbrella companies and implement stringent laws on employment status, supported by a strong enforcement regime. Find out more\u00c2\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And as Unite campaigns for such reforms, the union is tackling bogus self-employment now with its new Strategic Case Unit. Find out more here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The number of people considered self-employed has risen to a record-breaking high, now comprising 15 per cent of the entire workforce.   But don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think for a second that this army of self-employed are happily earning their living being their own bosses. Tax loopholes and lack of clarity in the law allow employers to take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[167,556,712],"wps_subtitle":"Bogus self-employment rising","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12930"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12930"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12933,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12930\/revisions\/12933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}