Received from: Equity
Congress notes that:
i. the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA) has brought welcome improvements to rights for employees and other workers without employment status
ii. issues facing the genuinely self-employed are yet to receive significant attention, despite Make Work Pay commitments to consult on the right to a written contract and the extension of health and safety and blacklisting protections
iii. extending those rights is important, but not sufficient
iv. further statutory exclusions require action, namely access to bereavement leave, parental leave and parental pay – which are denied to all working people without employee status
v. additionally, protection from detriments for industrial action provided by the ERA 2025 have not been extended to the genuinely self-employed who can lawfully enter trade disputes.
Therefore, Congress calls on the TUC to:
a. coordinate relevant unions to develop proposals and campaign for the extension of the aforementioned rights to the genuinely self-employed and, where relevant, other workers without employee status
b. lobby the government to:
− act on its promise to consult on the right to a written contract and the extension of health and safety and blacklisting protections for the genuinely self-employed
− act on its promise to review the parental leave and pay system with regards to implications for the genuinely self-employed and other workers without employee status
− extend protection from detriments to the genuinely self-employed who can lawfully.
Equity
AMENDMENT
Bullet point iv., after ‘access to’ insert ‘sick pay’.
In the section ‘Congress calls on the TUC to’, in first bullet after ‘aforementioned rights’ insert ‘and protections’.
Add new second bullet: ‘Work closely with the government’s Freelance Champion to identify barriers facing self-employed workers and champion reforms to employment rights and income security’
In the section ‘Lobby the government to: insert new third and fourth points:
‘- reform income protection arrangements for genuinely self-employed workers during periods of sickness’
‘- improve pension saving and retirement security for genuinely self-employed workers.’
Prospect
AMENDMENT
After point b. after bullet 3, add bullets:
– tackle issues within self-employment, such as IR35 taxation rules for the self-employed, which leads to those in self-employment facing unfair taxation without any of the associated employment rights
– implement policies to reduce the gender pay gap in self-employment.
Community
AMENDMENT
Add point c.
‘Work with relevant trade unions to produce materials that inform our members on what being genuinely self-employed means to enable them to make decisions about their employment status from a position of strength’
Royal College of Podiatry