Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Global cities
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Covid-19 crisis makes clear a new concept of ‘worker’ is overdue

Nicola Countouris, Valerio De Stefano, Keith Ewing and Mark Freedland 9th April 2020

The crisis has highlighted the vulnerability of those outside conventional employment. A broader concept of ‘worker’ is needed to protect them equally.

concept of 'worker'
Nicola Countouris

The Covid-19 crisis has found the western world, and Europe, at its most vulnerable. Years of austerity-inspired macroeconomic policies and cuts in public spending have stripped essential social services, including our health services, to the bone.

Decades of deindustrialisation and reliance upon global networks of production and trade have depleted our capacity to produce or commandeer at short notice essential goods, from food to protective equipment—even basic pharmaceutical and medical supplies. And half a century of financial, fiscal and labour-market deregulation has generated the most unequal and fragile of economic systems, with wide economic disparities profoundly embedded in the fabric of European societies.

concept of 'worker'
Valerio De Stefano

There will be testing times ahead but this can be an opportunity to rebuild our economic, productive and social systems in a way that will make them more resilient. As far as labour-law reforms are concerned, the precarious position of millions of workers trapped in a variety of contractual arrangements of self-employment—bogus or otherwise—is quickly emerging as the most visible injustice afflicting the workforce.

concept of 'worker'
Keith Ewing

While governments are rushing to support employees with income-replacement schemes and businesses with interruption loan facilities, millions of self-employed on zero-hours contracts—working through personal-service companies, digital platforms or other intermediaries—are caught in a limbo of helplessness and face poverty and destitution, in spite of the belated introduction of government schemes seemingly targeted at their needs. Reports are now emerging of large swaths of self-employed missing out on these schemes just as, over the years, they missed out on a broad range of statutory and collective labour rights, while also failing to achieve the economic security and market autonomy typically enjoyed by successful businesses.


Become part of our Community of Thought Leaders


Get fresh perspectives delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for our newsletter to receive thought-provoking opinion articles and expert analysis on the most pressing political, economic and social issues of our time. Join our community of engaged readers and be a part of the conversation.

Sign up here

concept of 'worker'
Mark Freedland

Weakest link

It is well known that these workers are the weakest link. But out of convenience, self-delusion or mistaken belief, little has been done to protect them. They were prevented from bargaining collectively to improve their conditions of work. They were told that, for the purposes of defining their employment status, contractual form would often prevail over the reality of the work they did. Self-employment was sold by many policy-makers as the new philosophers’ stone—capable of curing unemployment, stagnation and lacklustre economic performance.

This is despite clear evidence that millions of self-employed (actual or nominal), whether gig workers or not, were trapped in low-paid and essentially insecure jobs, often against their will. For millions of these so-called self-employed workers, the Covid-19 crisis lays bare the vulnerabilities inherent in their under-protected, underpaid and undervalued work and corresponding status. Yet many of them are the cleaners, couriers and information-technology staff on which our safety, well-being and infrastructure greatly depend.

There is a growing awareness that something needs to be done to assist them at this critical time, but supposedly it is operationally hard to protect their incomes and livelihoods—it isn’t. We know, and have known for a long time, that a large number of self-employed earn their livelihoods and put food on the table merely by selling their personal work and services. They don’t employ staff to perform a service, and they most certainly don’t rely on any substantial assets, tangible or intangible, to provide their labour. We need a new ‘worker’ definition which recognises this reality.

This new definition needs to encompass not only traditional employees but also all those self-employed who do not comprise ‘undertakings’ (they do not employ staff and do not reply on substantial amount of assets to perform what is clearly personal work). They should all be placed by legislation under the same protective scope for the purposes of labour and social-security law and, of course, the various income-replacement measures explored in the context of the Covid-19 crisis.

‘Personal work relation’

To find this new ‘worker’ definition, one need look no further than the ‘personal work relation’ concept endorsed by the European Trade Union Confederation at its last congress in Vienna, now part of its 2019-23 policy priorities (paragraph 398). The concept of ‘personal work’ has been explored at length academically and in policy terms, in the United Kingdom and the wider Europe. It is clearly designed to expand the personal scope of legislation. Unsurprisingly, it is the concept on which tax law traditionally relies in the UK when it seeks to expand the reach of National Insurance contributions beyond employees to forestall tax avoidance.

It is time for all labour and social-security rights to apply to ‘every worker who provides work or services in a predominantly personal capacity and is not genuinely operating a business undertaking on his or her own account’. This definition should be accompanied by strong, if rebuttable, worker-status presumptions—and by a new concept of employer, defined broadly so as to include any employing entity which ‘substantially determines the terms on which the worker worked’, as is already the case for limited purposes in UK law.

Overcoming the Covid-19 crisis will require unprecedented social cohesion and solidarity. It will also require more cohesive and solidaristic working arrangements, the abandonment of ‘labour markets’ and the rediscovery of timeless principles, most notably that ‘labour is not a commodity’. Accepting that all those who earn their livelihoods through their personal labour ought to be recognised as workers, and protected accordingly, should be a key, and urgent, policy priority.

Nicola Countouris, Valerio De Stefano, Keith Ewing and Mark Freedland

Nicola Countouris is a professor of labour and European law at University College London and co-author with Valerio De Stefano of New Trade Union Strategies for New Forms of Employment (ETUC, 2019). Valerio De Stefano is the BOFZAP professor of labour law at KU Leuven. Keith Ewing is professor of public law at King's College London. Mark Freedland is emeritus professor of employment law at the University of Oxford.


Support Progressive Ideas: Become a Social Europe Member!


Support independent publishing and progressive ideas by becoming a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month. You can help us create more high-quality articles, podcasts and videos that challenge conventional thinking and foster a more informed and democratic society. Join us in our mission - your support makes all the difference!

Become a Social Europe Member

You are here: Home / Politics / Covid-19 crisis makes clear a new concept of ‘worker’ is overdue

Most Popular Posts

Russia,information war Russia is winning the information warAiste Merfeldaite
Nanterre,police Nanterre and the suburbs: the lid comes offJoseph Downing
Russia,nuclear Russia’s dangerous nuclear consensusAna Palacio
Belarus,Lithuania A tale of two countries: Belarus and LithuaniaThorvaldur Gylfason and Eduard Hochreiter
retirement,Finland,ageing,pension,reform Late retirement: possible for many, not for allKati Kuitto

Most Recent Posts

Ukraine,fatigue Ukraine’s cause: momentum is diminishingStefan Wolff and Tetyana Malyarenko
Vienna,social housing Vienna social-housing model: celebrated but misusedGabu Heindl
social democracy,nation-state Social democracy versus the nativist rightJan Zielonka
chemical,European Union Which comes first—Big Toxics’ profits or health?Vicky Cann
Russia,journalists,Ukraine,target Ukraine: journalists in Russia’s sightsKelly Bjorkland and Simon Smith

Other Social Europe Publications

strategic autonomy Strategic autonomy
Bildschirmfoto 2023 05 08 um 21.36.25 scaled 1 RE No. 13: Failed Market Approaches to Long-Term Care
front cover Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship

ETUI advertisement

The future of remote work

The 12 chapters collected in this volume provide a multidisciplinary perspective on the impact and the future trajectories of remote work, from the nexus between the location from where work is performed and how it is performed to how remote locations may affect the way work is managed and organised, as well as the applicability of existing legislation. Additional questions concern remote work’s environmental and social impact and the rapidly changing nature of the relationship between work and life.


AVAILABLE HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound Talks: does Europe have the skills it needs for a changing economy?

In this episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast, Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound’s research manager, Tina Weber, its senior research manager, Gijs van Houten, and Giovanni Russo, senior expert at CEDEFOP (The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training), about Europe’s skills challenges and what can be done to help workers and businesses adapt to future skills demands.

Listen where you get your podcasts, or for free, by clicking on the link below


LISTEN HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

The summer issue of the Progressive Post magazine by FEPS is out!

The Special Coverage of this new edition is dedicated to the importance of biodiversity, not only as a good in itself but also for the very existence of humankind. We need a paradigm change in the mostly utilitarian relation humans have with nature.

In this issue, we also look at the hazards of unregulated artificial intelligence, explore the shortcomings of the EU's approach to migration and asylum management, and analyse the social downside of the EU's current ethnically-focused Roma policy.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI European Collective Bargaining Report 2022 / 2023

With real wages falling by 4 per cent in 2022, workers in the European Union suffered an unprecedented loss in purchasing power. The reason for this was the rapid increase in consumer prices, behind which nominal wage growth fell significantly. Meanwhile, inflation is no longer driven by energy import prices, but by domestic factors. The increased profit margins of companies are a major reason for persistent inflation. In this difficult environment, trade unions are faced with the challenge of securing real wages—and companies have the responsibility of making their contribution to returning to the path of political stability by reducing excess profits.


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube