No matter which way you look at it, flexible working will carry on being a strong asset to the UK economy and future growth. Our role as a professional commercial contracting and umbrella company is to support contractors and freelancers with fully compliant services that ensure that they continue to be successful facilitators of Britain’s commercial recovery. It’s that simple.
But it would seem that the ‘industry’ does not necessarily have this vital component of the labour market ‘pinned down’ when it comes to the laws that govern them and their shareholders. I say ‘pinned down’ as opposed to anything polarising, because not all relationships are transactional, some within the industry really do want to ensure the contingent workforce gets a fair deal.
Perhaps the difficulties in ensuring that temporary workers have the same pay and working conditions as comparable permanent employee boils down to the definition of this collective. From gang labourer or migrant worker at one end of the spectrum to professional contractor or self-employed at the other, the disparity is obvious. But without doubt, in every case, it’s about decent folk wanting to make a decent wage. And if this remained the focus of the debate when it comes to how much they are being paid, and how fairly they are being treated, then there would be clarity on how to empower them, rather than prohibiting them from contributing to the economy.
So how fair a deal is AWR? The Government of its own volition started to undermine this regulation by allowing the Swedish Derogation as a ‘get out clause’. This, compounded by the arguments around minimum wage and immigration further muddies the water, especially when comments by Ed Miliband lends media space to this unholy triumvirate. Immigration is a separate issue, with decisions needing to be made around its holistic impact to Britain’s social, cultural and economic landscape. Migrant workers should not be used in a tug-of-war between minimum wage and a threat to British jobs. Equally, a minimum wage should be sacrosanct for everyone, regardless of who or what employment model they choose to embrace.
And when the rules are made, it’s our job to stick to them, because regardless of how flawed they may or may not be, they were made to ensure that people who are working receive most of their money in their pocket. Legislation was not introduced to entice the more creative of us to exploit loopholes for better margins or to manipulate semantics to provide a more robust demonstration of the decreasing unemployment figures.
