Amanda Martin, the local Member of Parliament for Portsmouth North, has welcomed the Government’s announcement of a new consultation to clampdown on bogus self-employment and give vulnerable workers in Portsmouth the rights and protections that they deserve.
- Local MP for Amanda Martin has welcomed the Government’s upcoming consultation seeking to close the loopholes allowing bad employers to dodge legal obligations for their employees and undercut competitors doing the right thing.
- After Conferences Recess, the Government will publish a formal consultation on measures that could clampdown on employment status abuses and give workers greater legal certainty – strengthening the rights of 900,000 workers across the United Kingdom.
- The Government has also announced a transformative new package for genuinely self-employed people: giving stronger health and safety protections, protecting them from unfair backlisting and new right to a written statement.
- Amanda Martin MP said that this is an important step in ensuring that local people have the terms and conditions that they deserve, after raising issues brought to them by local workers and trade unionists in Portsmouth.
Bogus self-employment is a practice whereby some businesses mislabel the employment status of their staff to avoid legal obligations, such as the National Minimum Wage or holiday pay. This has led to a situation where staff are treated as workers day-to-day but are denied the core rights that they are entitled to. External research currently estimates that up to 900,000 people may currently be impacted by this, including parcel couriers, delivery drivers and gig economy workers.
After hearing from residents who were missing out on fundamental rights, and local businesses that were concerned some competitors were undercutting them, Amanda Martin MP raised this issue with the Government, urging action to support residents and ensure businesses are competing on a level playing field.
After Conference Recess, the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade will launch the Government’s consultation seeking views on rebalancing Employment Tribunals and improving compliance with the framework by introducing a new legal assumption of worker status and de-emphasising the personal service test.
These measures will shift the burden of proof in Employment Tribunals to the employer and ensure that workers are not labelled self-employed despite being under significant control.
Amanda Martin MP has welcomed that this announcement comes alongside further action to support genuinely self-employed people in Portsmouth. Since being elected Amanda has fought for a fairer deal for genuinely self-employed people, recognising that they are vital to our local economy: filling gaps in the market, providing a high-quality service in their local areas, and often growing their business to begin providing employment opportunities for those out of work.
The Government’s new support includes making proper health and safety more accessible, introducing real protections against blacklisting, and empowering self-employed people to provide written statements.
These new rights and protections build on the Government’s small business strategy, ‘Backing Your Business: Our Plan for Small and Medium Sized Businesses’, legislation to end late payments, and the Parental Pay and Leave Review assessing if current support is fair for self-employed parents.
Local MP for Portsmouth North, Amanda Martin, said: “I am delighted that our Labour Government is acting on the concerns that I have raised on behalf of working people and businesses in Portsmouth.
“This consultation could make a real difference for hundreds of workers in our area and ensure that every working person in Portsmouth has the rights and protections that they deserve.”
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, Jonathan Reynolds, said: “There is one area which both workers and businesses, raise with me repeatedly and that is bogus self-employment. It denies workers basic employment rights, undercuts businesses who are doing the right thing, and leaves people with the sense that playing by the rules doesn’t pay.
“Everyone can see this isn’t right. It is a fundamental question of fairness and I tell you now, we
will put an end to it”.
Minister of State for the Future of Work, Kate Dearden, said: “Tackling bogus self-employment is good for workers and good for businesses.
“This consultation will give workers, employers and unions the opportunity to share their views on our proposals to level the playing field for businesses and ensure that everyone is treated fairly at work”.
