IOSH makes Westminster waves for gig workers

Inside Committee Room 17 at the Palace of Westminster, overlooking the unexpected Thames protest from the Fund Britain’s Waterways group, our Policy and Public Affairs team was staging its own campaign event, titled ‘Protecting gig workers in the age of AI’.

But the brief waterborne bedlam didn’t hamper our team from engaging invited MPs and stakeholders in a key discussion on the rights and conditions of gig economy workers, as highlighted in the recently published IOSH report, ‘A platform for success: building a better future in the gig economy.’

Chaired by Lee Barron, MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire, on behalf of Antonia Bance MP, a member of the Commons Business and Trade Committee, a 12-strong panel including three other MPs considered how to ensure gig and platform workers are treated fairly and according to decent work principles and standards.

Fairness

Before taking questions from the floor, the panel also assessed the risks of algorithmic management in gig work and how to guarantee transparency, fairness and worker autonomy in decision-making processes.

“As tends to be the case with new technology, there’s a challenge to ensure digitalisation and artificial intelligence remains our servant and does not become the master,” said Lee Barron MP on concluding the event.

On the rise

The ARUP and IOSH report, ‘Towards a safe and healthy future of work’, identified that gig and platform work is on the rise. Looking into this further, ‘A platform for success' estimates that 1.7 million people currently work in the UK gig economy, with 20% of gig workers classing this work as their main source of income. Research identifies that there is expected to be a 300 percent growth in the number of gig workers by 2027.
Yet an IOSH-commissioned survey of 1,000 platform workers by Opinium showed that:

• 58 percent of those working for an online platform said they had to live with an unpredictable level of income
• 58 percent also said that gig work makes it difficult to care for dependants, including children and elderly relatives
• 63 percent said it impacts their ability to take holidays
• 54 percent highlighted low levels of job security.

IOSH presented these findings in Westminster, along with its calls to action as specified within the report. Other speakers at the event raised a host of valuable points concerning gig workers needing trade union rights and a greater voice, to their health and safety needing protection (along with various occupational safety and health impacts being highlighted, such as anxiety and pain, work intensification and threats to road safety), as well as the importance of awareness and education for young people.

The audience also learned about the diversity of the gig workforce, which extends to carers and cleaners, and how there is a need to tackle bogus self-employment. They also heard what measures other countries have implemented in this area.

Consensus

Speaking straight after the event, IOSH Head of Policy Ruth Wilkinson picked up on the high degree of consensus she felt was in the room: “The partners and stakeholders who took the time to join us in Westminster were keen to discuss the employment status of gig, or platform workers, with many of them falling between worker and self-employed status.

“This was a really fruitful discussion which ranged from the Employment Rights Bill and the Fair Work Agency to the Data (Use and Access) Bill, Labour Market Enforcement Strategy and calls for more resources to be put into enforcement,” she added.

“At IOSH, we’ll continue to call for the protection of workers’ rights for those working in the gig, or platform economy.”

“So, we’ll be holding a panel meeting, next month, with Justin Madders MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Business and Trade. It’s a meeting he called for after seeing our report, and we’ll be able to raise with him some of the findings that came out of today’s session,” Ruth explained.

“This will give valuable support to our drive to advocate for better health and safety, with social and labour protections for gig and platform workers.”

Panel members at the event

• Andrew Chamberlain – IPSE The Self-employment association
• Dr Aaron Cheng – Assistant Professor of Information Systems, Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
• James Farrar – Founder and Director of Worker Info Exchange (WIE)
• Adrian Simpson – Head of Policy and Membership, Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)
• Tim Sharp – Senior Employment Rights Officer, Trades Union Congress (TUC)
• Ruth Wilkinson – Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH)
• Ben Willmott – Head of Public Policy, The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
• Dr Alex J Wood – Assistant Professor in Economic Sociology, University of Cambridge

MPs on the panel

• Lee Barron
• Sam Carling
• Nadia Whittome

The event was sponsored by Antonia Bance MP (Business and Trade Committee).