Review to recommend minimum wage for 'gig economy' workers

The government's review into 'gig economy' workers wants companies to ensure they are able to earn the national living wage.

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Sharecast News | 10 Jul, 2017

After some strong calls for a review of how the growing casual workforce is treated by employment law last week, the official government review of the situation was set to recommend a guarantee of at least the minimum wage for those technically classed as self-employed.

The issue has made headlines in the last year, with tech-based startups such as restaurant delivery service Deliveroo and minicab booking platform Uber facing backlash from workers who want better protection under the law.

At present they are contractors, and must cover the costs of their vehicles and equipment and pay all of their national insurance, despite having to access to holiday or sick pay or a guarantee of minimum wage.

The recent review, headed by former adviser to the Blair government Matthew Taylor, was set to recommend firms using such arrangements would need to prove someone working for them can earn at least 1.2 times the national living wage when doing an average level of work for an average number of hours.

A report from BBC News said that world be calculated by modelling the number of tasks - or ‘gigs’ - over the average workload of the company’s actual workers.

But the review would reportedly still allow some flexibility and protection for companies making use of the ‘gig economy’, by allowing them to present hourly earnings potential to workers before they agree to sign on to work.

If a worker agrees to an earnings potential lower than the national living wage, they would not be allowed to take action against the firm for paying below minimum wage, although the earnings potential would be calculated based on the actual number of people working and the actual level of work at the time it was agreed to.

Uber - a company itself embroiled in controversy after its entire executive office was cleared out following allegations of institutional sexism in the firm - last week called for changes to UK employment law.

It said it wanted to be able to give its workers holiday and sick pay, while still having the flexibility to not set schedules or guarantee hours.

If it was to give workers those benefits at the moment, they would become employees in the eyes of the law, which would require Uber to offer them the minimum wage and regular scheduled hours, rather than a pay-per-trip ‘gig’ working model.

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