UK – Gig Economy Workforce in England and Wales Nearly Tripled in Last Five Years

The number of people working for gig economy platforms in the UK has nearly tripled in England and Wales over the past five years, according to new research published by the Trades Union Congress.

The research, carried out by the University of Hertfordshire with fieldwork and data collection by BritainThinks, showed that 14.7% of working adults surveyed now work via gig economy platforms at least once a week, compared to 5.8% in 2016 and 11.8% in 2019.

This amounts to 4.4 million people in England and Wales working for gig economy platforms at least once a week.

Meanwhile, 22.6% of workers have done platform work (work on work services platforms such as Uber and Deliveroo) at some point, up from 11.5% in 2016.

The union body has warned that the growing gig economy will lead to more workers on low pay and experiencing poor conditions and says the government “must stop letting gig economy platforms off the hook” and is calling for workers to have greater trade union and individual rights.

These include a right of access to workplaces for unions, including a digital right of access, to enable them to talk to workers about what membership can offer them; a new ‘worker’ definition that covers all existing employees and workers and gives them the full range of legal rights; and a ban on zero hours contracts, by giving workers the rights to a contract reflecting their normal hours of work and adequate notice of shifts.

Original Article: https://www2.staffingindustry.com/eng/Editorial/Daily-News/UK-Gig-economy-workforce-in-England-and-Wales-nearly-tripled-in-last-five-years-59667