12/07/2017

The flexibility of the UK labour market, where individuals and businesses are free to agree the terms and conditions that best suit them, helps to maintain high employment rates and the British way is ‘rightly seen internationally as largely successful’. *

However, there are also widespread concerns that ‘one-sided flexibility’ is being used by some employers to transfer risk to, and exert control over, workers.

This dichotomy and how to tackle it is a central theme of ‘Good Work: The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices’ * – the much-anticipated review commissioned by the government from former Tony Blair advisor, Matthew Taylor, to consider the implications for workers, employers and HM Treasury of new forms of work, such as the ‘gig economy’ and ‘platform working’.

Based on ‘the single, overriding ambition’ that ‘all work in the UK economy should be fair and decent, with realistic scope for development and fulfillment’, the review sets out seven steps towards fair and decent work, then discusses how the principles underpinning them can best be promoted.

In particular, it focuses on the desirability of creating ‘quality work’ and the need to improve the situation for vulnerable workers.

It delivers wide-ranging recommendations that fall into three categories

  • tackling exploitation and the potential for exploitation at work
  • increasing clarity in the law and helping people know and exercise their rights
  • in the longer term, aligning the incentives shaping the labour market with modern industrial strategy and broader national objectives

The review accepts that “Platform based working (ie for firms such as Deliveroo and Uber) offers welcome opportunities for genuine two way flexibility and can provide opportunities for those who may not be able to work in more conventional ways”.

At the same time, it holds that platform based workers are among the most vulnerable as they are most likely to suffer from ‘unfair, one-sided flexibility’.

In its headline recommendation, it has suggested tackling this by

  • renaming ‘worker’ status with ‘dependent contractor’ status to make it easier to distinguish workers from those who are legitimately self-employed
  • providing additional protections for this group and stronger incentives for firms to treat them fairly

Like the review itself, the proposed new status has had a mixed reception. The Institute of Directors, the CBI and the BCC and ACAS are among those welcoming it as ‘providing clarity’, while many legal experts consider it ‘confusing and unnecessary’. 

* DBEIS requests that anyone who has any questions or comments about the review, to contact modernemploymentreview@beis.gov.uk.