An inquiry by the Work and Pensions Committee into self-employment and the “gig” economy has highlighted illegal and unintelligible clauses in the contracts issued by companies such as Uber, Hermes, Deliveroo and Amazon to their “self-employed” couriers.

After seeing copies of the actual contracts issued to drivers, the Committee made the following observations:

  • Uber's contract was "unintelligible", something that the company acknowledged in a letter
  • Deliveroo's contract explicitly required its couriers to agree that they were not workers, and to agree not to challenge their self-employed status in court. The company said in oral evidence on February 22 that this clause would "disappear". A letter from the company to the committee committed to removing it "within the coming weeks"
  • Section 13 of Uber's contract also contains a clause on not disputing self-employed status
  • Section 2 of Amazon's contract performs a similar function to section 13 of Uber's contract - although neither goes as far as Deliveroo's in getting couriers to agree not to challenge their status in court
  • Although these clauses may not be legally enforceable, the intention appears to be to put people off challenging their status, including not going to court, and trying to obtain employment rights that may be due to them.

Much of the written evidence put to the committee focused on the low pay (some of it below the minimum wage) experienced by the couriers, the difficulties in taking time off for holidays and/or GP appointments, the requirement to deliver at certain times (restricting the courier’s ability to decide when to work) and the extremely long hours.

As the chair of the Committee, Frank Field MP points out, these companies are keen to flag up the “flexibility” their business model offers to drivers when, in reality, the only real flexibility is that enjoyed by the companies themselves. Clearly, “a marvellous business model, if you can get away with it”.

The Work and Pensions Committee launched its inquiry in December last year to examine whether the UK welfare system adequately supports the growing numbers of self-employed (about 15 per cent of the workforce) and gig economy workers, and how it might be adapted to suit their needs.

Gerard Airey of Thompsons Solicitors said “This is a welcome report by the Work and Pensions Committee. It further highlights the issues with the ‘gig-economy’ and the lengths that huge corporations will go to in order to avoid giving hard working people their legal entitlements.

This isn’t just an issue with companies such as those reported; there are major issues with ‘gig-economy’ in other areas such as construction and the care sector, where trade unions continue to support their members in challenging poor and exploitative employment practices.

It’s time that these issues were highlighted further and these shameless practices ended. Employment status is a particularly important issue in the modern economy and we are pursuing many claims on behalf of affected union members”.

To read the committee’s findings, go to: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/work-and-pensions-committee/news-parliament-2015/gig-economy-evidence-published-16-17/

To read the evidence sent to the committee, go to: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/work-and-pensions-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/self-employment-gig-economy-16-17/publications/