Demos’ response to the DWP and BEIS Select Committee’s Framework for Modern Employment

The DWP and BEIS Select Committee’s Framework for Modern Employment is a strong statement against the exploitation of some of Britain’s poorest workers. The Government should certainly take forward its proposal for new statutory definitions of employment statuses centred around the issue of ‘control’, as the Taylor report also recommended.

Like Taylor, the report also tries to strike a welcome balance between worker protection and maintaining the dynamism of flexible labour markets. However, Demos believes this requires an examination of the supply side incentives that can encourage gig economy practices in the first place, as well as a broader conversation about how we can improve access to pensions and other rights. We will be publishing research on these topic in early 2018 as part of a wider project on Britain’s self-employed workforce.