A newly-established working group on the determination of employment status met this week to discuss false self-employment and potential to improve systems to determine correct employment status for workers.

Bogus self-employment refers to practices where employers force staff into false self-employment arrangements to avoid their responsibilities under employment law.

Fórsa national secretary Katie Morgan is one of the ICTU representatives on the working group, which has highlighted the serious impact the issue of bogus self-employment has on workers.

The Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa), which is a branch of Fórsa, recently wrote to the Taoiseach about the problem. Ialpa also brought a motion to the union’s 2021 divisional conference to highlight how Irish law currently facilitates – and even encourages – bogus self-employment in many sectors.

Chaired by minister of state Damien English, the working group on the determination of employment status is comprised of employer and union representatives. It was established to give stakeholders the opportunity to engage on issues relating to bogus self-employment.

Katie said the Government’s focus had so far been on social protection and revenue collection rather than employment rights.

Employer bodies argue that the incidence of bogus self-employment is overstated, and that many self-employed people wish to be deemed this way.

But unions told the working group that case law did not truly reflect the scale of the problem as many workers were fearful of losing their job, and damaging future employability, by taking cases against their employer.

Aviation and media were identified as particularly vulnerable sectors in this regard. But the problem also exists in construction, the meat industry, forestry, management services, hairdressing and other sectors.

“This is only the start of a long process, and something that unions have been campaigning on for decades. It is positive that we have a seat at the table, and we will utilise it to make sure the workers voice is heard, and that this hopefully influences any potential recommendations from the group,” said Katie.