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Bogus self-employment epidemic collides with the coronavirus epidemic
MARK HARVEY of the Institute of Employment Rights argues that Britain has walked into a perfect storm due to employers forcing workers to register as self employed — with no responsibility toward them in times like the present crisis

THE coronavirus infected self-employment chickens have come back to roost – in their millions.

In 1995, I wrote a pamphlet for the Institute of Employment Rights. It was called Towards the Insecurity Society. It showed how an epidemic of self-employment had exploded in the construction industry in the United Kingdom.

I argued that the growth of self-employed and insecure, casualised employment “promotes a pervading sense of insecurity. It also undermines the viability of the tax system on which the very existence of the welfare state is based.

It creates a vicious downward spiral, diminishing the revenues necessary for a welfare state whilst at the same time creating more people likely to be dependent on it: an insecurity society.” 

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