In certain quarters there's been disappointment and frustration this morning following the long awaited announcement of next steps following the Matthew Taylor review of employment practices. It's difficult to see anything concrete in terms of new employment rights being created. Instead there will now follow a total of four further consultations on the measures.
The main issue of legislating to capture gig economy workers as "workers" and therefore securing their entitlement to key employment rights such as National Minimum Wage protection and paid holidays has been ducked. Instead we have a further consultation on the issue.
I quite liked the Matthew Taylor definition of a "dependent contractor". Most of us have an instinctive feel for when self-employment is not really self-employment. We have seen the continuing saga of Uber and other gig economy litigation. However until the legislation catches up with so-called "modern working practices" we can expect more of the same and it does not look like the issue will be resolved any time soon.
There was disappointment from workers, unions and Labour that government has only pledged to consult on possible changes to the use of self-employment. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Gig economy workers have expressed anger that long-awaited changes to working practices in Britain have stopped short of bringing in new laws to prevent bogus self-employment, which denies basic rights to around 1.1 million couriers, minicab drivers and other workers.
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