Question

“All these laws regulating the employment relationship are bad for business and the economy!” Agree or disagree with this statement by making reference to two separate employment law statutes.

Answer 1

Agency workers. There are two categories of ‘agencies’ (Employment Agencies Act 1973): ● employment agencies introduce working people to be employed by or to establish a business relationship with the client themselves; and ● employment businesses supply their staff to a client to work on a temporary basis under the control of the hirer. They are usually paid by the agency. Overall, the total numbers of agency workers is small. However, in certain sectors and occupations, their incidence is significant (i.e. clerical and secretarial work, personal and protective services, and plant and machine operatives). There is also a growth in ‘banks’ of professional agency workers (e.g. nurses, further education lecturers and supply schoolteachers).

Zero-hours contract working. This has been defined as an arrangement ‘where the worker was not guaranteed any work at all but in some way was required to be available as and when the employer needed that person’ (Cave 1997). The worker has the right to refuse work. This is not a new form of working. It has, however, grown in importance as a result of variable customer demand, changing technology and managerial strategies to be more cost effective. In 1998, the government reported some 200,000 such workers (DTI 1998).

Self-employed workers. There are 3.9 million self-employed persons – almost three-quarters of whom are male. This category has grown fitfully since the early 1980s – depending on economic circumstances. The term encompasses people in other ‘atypical working’ (e.g. temporary working, homeworking/ teleworking)

Of course, the situation with regard to the employment relationship is not the same in every country. Where the formal economy absorbs only a very small part of the population and where high unemployment swells the ranks of the self-employed, the reality tends to be different. Even in these cases, however, wage earners may represent a significant proportion of the working population in quantitative terms. The widespread emergence of new forms of employment is frequently referred to in the context of changes in the organization of work and flexible work arrangements. However, new forms of employment may be understood in different ways and mean different things, especially with respect to the legal implications, and for this reason an important distinction needs to be made at this point.. People may provide their labour either within the employment relationship under the authority of an employer and for remuneration or within a civil/commercial relationship independently and for a fee. Each of these relationships has certain characteristics which vary from one country to another and determine to what extent the performance of work falls within an employment relationship or a civil/commercial relationship. In some countries and in some sectors more than others, employment relationships have become more diversified. They have become much more versatile and, alongside traditional full-time employees, employers are increasingly employing workers in other ways which allow them to use their labour as efficiently as possible. Many people accept short-term employment, or agree to work certain days of the week, for want of better opportunities. But in other cases, these options are an appropriate solution, both for the worker and for the enterprise. Recourse to various types of employment is in itself a legitimate response to the challenges faced by enterprises, as well as meeting the needs of some employees for more flexible work arrangements. These various types of work arrangements lie within the framework of the employment relationship. At the same time, there are civil or commercial contractual relationships under which the services of self-employed workers may be procured, but on terms and conditions which differ from those within an employment relationship. Frequent recourse to such contractual arrangements has become increasingly widespread in recent years. From a legal standpoint, these arrangements lie outside the framework of the employment relationship.