The Government’s Employment Rights Bill passed its latest vote in Parliament this week, remaining on track to come into force next year.
The legislation introduces a variety of reforms to employment law, including immediate protections from day one of employment, flexible working, regulation of “zero-hours” contracts, enhanced statutory sick pay, and increased support for carers.
Freelancers might be forgiven for eyeing these reforms, and the rapid progress being made in advancing their legislation, with envy. The equivalent commitments made to the self-employed in Labour’s 2024 General Election manifesto have been slower to emerge.
While that remains the case, the concern will be that the existing imbalance between employees and the self-employed becomes even more lop-sided. And the longer that remains the case, the greater the temptation for employers to lay off salaried employees and replace them with underpaid, disempowered freelancers.
Many freelancers on Universal Credit will also be hit hard by the bill’s increase to the UK National Living Wage, as discussed in previous FMTW Newsletters. Alongside the Government’s increasingly belligerent statements on cuts to benefits, this will further increase the immense pressures facing the most vulnerable members of society.
Labour’s manifesto made clear commitments to freelancers, and while the Government position is that enacting these reforms requires an extensive initial consultation phase, the slow pace of progress, alongside rapid improvements for PAYE employees, risks leaving freelancers even further down the ecosystem’s food chain than ever before.
You can take action to help keep freelancers’ needs at the forefront of politicans’ thinking by writing to your MP and other elected representatives - feel free to use our template here.
You can also sign Equity’s petition on Universal Credit here.
