Recommendation 6

The Government has committed to introducing an Employment Bill in this Parliament which will “build on existing employment law with measures that protect those in low-paid work and the gig economy”. In our earlier report on DWP’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, we recommended that the Government should bring forward the Bill as soon as possible. We were therefore disappointed when the Bill was not included in the Queen’s Speech 2021. Given the significant changes in the employment market over the last decade, we believe it is imperative that the definition of employment is updated and clarified to ensure that workers enjoy the legal status that they are entitled to. This is not only key in protecting workers in times of change but also in ensuring access to skills training provided by or in conjunction with employers. We also urge the Department to work with HM Treasury to ensure the definitions of employment for tax purposes are consistent with those for employment law and to end the tax incentives for disguising employment as self-employment. The Government now says simply that the Bill will be introduced “when the time is right”—but it is not at all clear when that might be. We recommend that the Government should, as a matter of urgency, set out a timescale for when it will introduce the Bill. We also recommend that this be published in draft this session to enable pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill.

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