Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Employment lawLatest NewsGig economyFreelance workers

Bill to create single worker status enters final stage at House of Lords

by Ashleigh Webber 27 Jan 2022
by Ashleigh Webber 27 Jan 2022 Lord Hendy's bill gets its third reading in the House of Lords this week
Shutterstock
Lord Hendy's bill gets its third reading in the House of Lords this week
Shutterstock

Legislation seeking to create a single worker status, entitling every individual who carries out work for another party to employment rights, is to receive its third reading in the House of Lords this week.

If taken forward, Lord Hendy QC’s Status of Workers Bill will see a simplification of laws governing how workers are categorised, effectively creating two statuses: workers who have employment rights from their first day in their job; and the genuinely self-employed, who have their own accounts and customers.

“At the moment we have a variety of categories, each with a different set of employment rights,” Lord Hendy told Personnel Today.

“The rights that Parliament has decided employees should have, in my view, ought to be available to anybody working for somebody else and not conducting their own business.”

The Labour peer said that simplifying how workers were categorised would help tackle the issue of “bogus” self-employment, as well as preventing organisations from forcing individuals into setting up personal service companies in order to cut costs.

“A genuine personal service company is used as a vehicle by someone who would otherwise be genuinely self-employed – an author perhaps, or a consultant advising on HR matters,” said Lord Hendy. “But some employers have been using this as a device to avoid certain employment rights.”

He said the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices, which made several recommendations around worker status including updating legislation so it is clearer about what the legal tests are for each status, was a “damp squib” and did not go far enough to address worker exploitation.

“[Matthew Taylor’s] proposals were very modest,” said Lord Hendy. “Essentially, it was a preservation of the status quo but with different titles given to the various categories.”

Worker status

Listen to Lord Hendy discuss his Bill

Determining employment status

What can an organisation do if the CEST tool gives an undetermined result for an IR35 assessment?

He added that changes to the IR35 off-payroll working rules in the private sector indicated that the government recognised there was an issue, but this did not address bogus self-employment in terms of employment rights.

If his bill were to become law, all workers would be given access to rights including holiday pay, sick pay and maternity pay. Lord Hendy said this would create a level playing field for organisations who felt they were being undercut by competitors that denied workers their rights in order to save money.

“We would have to have some distinctions about how these rights applied to workers who perhaps work numerous jobs,” said Hendy.

“Rights would have to be graded in some way – for example, someone working for one day a week for six months should not be entitled to full maternity pay – but they ought to be entitled to something on a pro-rated basis.”

Commenting on the recent employment status cases involving companies including Uber and Deliveroo, he said the bill would not prevent disputes between organisations and workers who felt they should receive employment rights, but would diminish the area for such litigation and give workers more clarity around what they’re entitled to.

If the bill passes its third reading this week, it will enter the House of Commons to be debated by MPs.

Although the bill had support from across the House of Lords at its second reading in September, business minister Lord Callanan stated that he was “not convinced that the bill is the right solution to further protect those in insecure work.”

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Callanan said that the government “will continue to take steps to protect vulnerable workers where needed”, including through the forthcoming Employment Bill – which was first proposed in 2019.

  • Listen to Lord Hendy talk about why the current employment status legislation is broken on this week’s Oven-Ready HR podcast.

Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today


Browse more human resources jobs

Ashleigh Webber

Ashleigh is a former editor of OHW+ and former HR and wellbeing editor at Personnel Today. Ashleigh's areas of interest include employee health and wellbeing, equality and inclusion and skills development. She has hosted many webinars for Personnel Today, on topics including employee retention, financial wellbeing and menopause support.

previous post
Trends for 2022: the Gartner view – employee turnover is set to soar
next post
Ministers look to propel people on Universal Credit into jobs faster

You may also like

Minister defends Employment Rights Bill at Acas conference

16 May 2025

CBI chair Soames accuses ministers of not listening...

16 May 2025

EHRC bows to pressure and extends gender consultation

15 May 2025

Contract cleaner loses EAT race discrimination appeal

14 May 2025

Construction workers win compensation claim against defunct employer

9 May 2025

Zero-hours workers’ rights to be extended from beyond...

8 May 2025

Employment tribunal backlog up 23% in a year

7 May 2025

Ministers urged to outlaw misuse of NDAs

7 May 2025

Employment Rights Bill must be tightened to protect...

1 May 2025

Lords criticise ‘opaque’, ‘on-the-hoof’ Employment Rights Bill

30 Apr 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+