Britons working in the “gig economy” for firms such as taxi app Uber and takeaway food courier Deliveroo deserve more rights, a government-commissioned report said yesterday.
However, it added that the British government should avoid adding to regulations.
Last year, British Prime Minister Theresa May set up a review into modern employment practices after an outcry over the increasing use of zero-hour contracts and the rising number of self-employed people working for apps in fast-growing sectors such as takeaway delivery and taxi services.
May plans to use the publication of the report as a chance to relaunch her leadership and appeal for opposition lawmakers to back her domestic reforms after a botched election cost her party its majority in parliament.
“While avoiding overbearing regulation, we will make sure people have the rights and protections they need,” May is to say.
Companies say the burgeoning gig economy, in which people can work simultaneously for different employers without fixed contracts, gives greater flexibility to both them and their staff.
However, such practices have been criticized as exploitative by unions.
Last year, judges sided with two self-employed drivers at Uber Technologies Inc, who had argued that they deserve workers’ rights such as the minimum wage, in a move which would add to the San Francisco-based firm’s costs, prompting it to appeal.
In Britain, the self-employed have no entitlement to employment rights beyond basic health and safety and anti-discrimination laws.
Regular workers, by contrast, receive entitlements such as annual leave, rest breaks and the minimum wage.
The report suggested an employment category be created known as “dependent contractors” with an eye on those working for platforms such as apps.
“We need to provide additional protections for this group and stronger incentives for firms to treat them fairly,” said the report, compiled Royal Society of Arts chief executive officer Matthew Taylor said. “The best way to achieve better work is not national regulation but responsible corporate governance, good management and strong employment relations within the organization.”
Firms would also be made to prove that a person working for them is able to earn at least 1.2 times the national living wage, which is £7.50 (US$9.67) per hour for the over-25s, the BBC reported on Monday.
May’s speech forms part of her efforts since taking office last year to attract more working class voters and those who she has called the “just about managing” to back her ruling Conservative Party.
However, in advance of the report’s release, Britain’s biggest union, Unite said it was up to businesses to enforce workers’ rights and the government needed to make sure entitlements were upheld.
“The onus must be on employers, not employees, to prove that the employment status is legitimately self-employed, for example, and we call again for this country to do as New Zealand does and ban abusive zero hours contracts,” it said. “Without fully resourced enforcement then all we have from Taylor and the government is a dog that is all bark and no bite.”
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day