Precarious and Vulnerable Forms of Employment

This Conference is concerned about the growth of precarious forms of employment relationships. This is not a phenomenon occurring only on the fringes of the labour market. Precarious and unstable work is becoming the norm. Work contracts are increasingly characterised by insecurity and adverse working conditions as secure, long-term employment contracts become harder to find. Increased flexibility often means increased exploitation as workers are denied rights because of their insecure employment status. Employers are increasingly adept at drafting contracts designed to label an individual as self-employed while others exploit loopholes in temporary, casual employment relationships as a way to deny some of the very worst-off workers the most basic of employment protections. Employment status or classification should not be used as an excuse to exclude people at work from the protection of statutory employment rights. This Conference believes that a system where employment rights apply differently according to employment status is enabling mistreatment and is failing to recognise the imbalance of power. There is a strong need to modernise the law so that it mitigates the negative impact of the diverse, flexible, 'self employed' and other vulnerable precarious forms of employment relationships by ensuring that all working people have the same set of basic employment rights regardless of their employment status. Precarious terms and conditions for affected workers impacts on all workers, as it has a disciplining effect on those people who have supposedly secure jobs. Unfair and indecent treatment must not remain lawful. This Conference calls on the Executive Council to: Identify the loopholes in employment legislation that are being exploited by employers to deny workers their rights. Develop a strategy to combat flexploitation and precariousness, and to improve the rights and protections available to all workers, including own account, 'economically dependant' self- employed workers Undertake a continuous national campaign; and This Conference calls on the Executive Council to extend the 'Union Connect' Fair Wage Campaign to boost membership among such vulnerable workers.