{"id":5522,"date":"2018-12-17T04:12:16","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T04:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/workplace-reforms-will-protect-gig-economy-workers\/"},"modified":"2018-12-17T04:12:16","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T04:12:16","slug":"workplace-reforms-will-protect-gig-economy-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/workplace-reforms-will-protect-gig-economy-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Workplace reforms &#8216;will protect gig economy workers&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Worker at an Amazon warehouse in Peterborough\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/F48C\/production\/_104840626_amazonworkergetty.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Workers on zero-hour contracts, agency employees or &#8220;gig economy&#8221; workers are to be better protected by a package of workplace reforms, the government says.<\/p>\n<p>Under new legislation to be introduced on Monday, staff would have to be told details of their rights from their first day in a job, including eligibility for paid and sick leave.<\/p>\n<p>Workers would also be given the right to request more predictable hours.<\/p>\n<p>But Labour and the unions say the planned reforms do not go far enough.<\/p>\n<p>The reforms are based on the findings of a review into modern working practices led by Matthew Taylor, a former aide to ex-PM Tony Blair and chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts. <\/p>\n<p>Ministers say the new legislation will:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">close a loophole that had allowed agency staff to be paid less than permanent employees<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">ensure firms will have to provide a &#8220;statement of rights&#8221; on the first day of a person&#8217;s employment, setting out what paid leave they are entitled to, including for illness, maternity and paternity leave<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">increase the maximum fine employers face at a tribunal from \u00a35,000 to \u00a320,000, if they are found to have demonstrated &#8220;malice, spite or gross oversight&#8221;<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">ensure that companies will have to calculate holiday pay based on 52 weeks, as opposed to 12 weeks, so people in &#8220;seasonal or atypical roles get the paid time off their are entitled to&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Business Secretary Greg Clark said: &#8220;Today&#8217;s largest upgrade in workers&#8217; rights in over a generation is a key part of building a labour market that continues to reward people for hard work, that celebrates good employers and is boosting productivity and earning potential across the UK.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, Frances O&#8217;Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said: &#8220;The right to request guaranteed working hours is no right all.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Zero-hours contract workers will have no more leverage than Oliver Twist. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unless unions get the right to organise and bargain for workers in places like Uber and Amazon, too many working people will continue to be treated like disposable labour,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                 <span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Matthew Fell, chief UK policy director at the CBI, said: &#8220;[Businesses] welcome a new law giving all workers the right to request more predictable working hours, which will help to facilitate the conversations that are essential to ensuring flexibility benefits both parties. <\/p>\n<p>But he said: &#8220;Legislation to amend employment status rules risks making the law less able to adapt to new forms of work in the future.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The government agrees with the Taylor review that completely banning zero-hour contracts &#8220;would negatively impact more people than it helped&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>It also said that platform-based working &#8211; including the likes of ride-sharing app Uber or food delivery business Deliveroo &#8211; offers &#8220;genuine two-way flexibility&#8221; for firms and workers.<\/p>\n<p>Zero-hour contracts, where an employer does not have to offer work and an employee has no obligation to work when asked, are highly controversial.<\/p>\n<p>The Archbishop of Canterbury called the contracts &#8220;the reincarnation of an ancient evil&#8221;. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-46586623\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images Workers on zero-hour contracts, agency employees or &#8220;gig economy&#8221; workers are to be better protected by a package of workplace reforms, the government says. Under new legislation to be introduced on Monday, staff would have to be told details of their rights from their first day in a job, including eligibility &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}