The Construction Industry Committee (CIC) of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has called for "all-party support" for a Labour Party bill to tackle Bogus Self Employment that is due to be debated in the Seanad tomorrow (Wednesday, February 28).
The Protection of Employment (Measures to Counter False Self Employment) Bill 2017 was drawn up by Labour Senator Ged Nash and aims to ensure that workers are treated equally where they carry out the same duties, but are not legally designated as "employees".
Calling for all party support for the initiative, CIC spokesperson Billy Wall said: "If parties across the political spectrum are serious about tackling the scourge of bogus self-employment, they should throw their weight behind this bill and help make its provisions a reality.
"While bogus self-employment remains a significant problem in the construction sector - with a recent official report confirming it is at double the rate of the wider economy - it has also spread into other sectors, including transport, education aviation and, as our colleagues in the NUJ have pointed out, across the media also," Mr Wall said.
"Officially, this problem didn't even exist until 2015 when Congress published a report showing that bogus self-employment was costing the country some €80 million a year in lost revenue, in construction alone.
"It is clear that employers who deliberately misrepresent a workers" status as falsely self-employed do so to avoid tax and to deprive workers of their rights. This bill presents an opportunity to bring this scandal to an end and restore rights and security to workers, across the economy," Mr Wall concluded.
The Congress report on Bogus Self Employment is available here
