RYANAIR SELF EMPLOYMENT SCAM, SAID THE DAILY MIRROR

Daily Mirror Campaign – Gizza Proper Job


GMB is supporting the Daily Mirror’s campaign – Gizza Proper Job.

Bogus self-employment - a scam where an employer falsely declares their staff to be self-employed in order to avoid paying employer's National Insurance along with basic employment rights – directly affects hundreds of thousands of workers in Britain and indirectly affects every taxpayer.

Lack of enforcement by an understaffed HMRC and lack of clarity over the legal definition of self-employment leaves employers free to exploit loopholes to cut their costs.



Bogusly self-employed workers don't get sick pay, holiday pay, redundancy rights, can't claim Jobseeker's Allowance if the work dries up and won't even qualify for a full state pension when they retire.



It's endemic in a number of key industries and services, for example, construction, taxi driving and courier driving, and growing in others, for example, retail, cleaning and other service industries, aviation and journalism. We've even heard of the first self-employed mineworkers!



The Daily Mirror's Gizza Proper Job campaign has identified a number of household names - RYANAIR, Addison Lee, Hermes Parcelnet, Barrett Homes and charity collectors used by British Red Cross, RSPCA, among others - that unfairly designate their staff self-employed.



Construction workers are three times more likely to be self-employed. The Treasury estimates up to 300,000 construction workers could be bogusly self-employed and puts the costs to the Treasury at ￡350m a year. Prof Mark Harvey, of the University of Essex , believes the figure is higher and costs over £1.7bn a year in lost tax.



Courier drivers are routinely designated self-employed despite working for the same engager for years, delivering parcels at set times and finding it hard to take time off. After paying for their vehicle, fuel and insurance, below minimum wages are common.



Factory and agricultural workers, frequently from eastern Europe, work "self-employed" for gangmasters with no security for below minimum wage. Romanian and Bulgarian workers are particularly vulnerable to this exploitation as they can only work as self-employed "entrepreneurs", except for some rare circumstances.



Bogus self-employment typically increases after a recession and this one's no different. Numbers of self-employed reached a record 4m last year, increasing as employees lose jobs.



The campaign already is supported by TUC and a string of unions including Unite, GMB and UCATT. Ed Miliband signed up shortly after becoming party leader and the Gangmasters' Licencing Authority supports the campaign after seeing similar problems in the agricultural sector.