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A single status of ‘worker’ for all but the genuinely self-employed should be created, says the Labour Party. The party today announced a proposal for a single status of worker to replace three existing employment categories – employee, worker and dependent contractor (ie not genuinely self employed) – and would effectively end insecure gig economy employment. [pullquote]We need a new deal for working people. Labour would ensure that all work balances the flexibility workers want with the security they deserve” – Andy McDonald MP[/pullquote] It would remove qualifying periods for basic rights and protections to give workers day one rights in the job. All workers would receive rights and protections including statutory sick pay (SSP), national minimum wage entitlement, holiday pay, paid parental leave, and protection against unfair dismissal. Alongside Labour’s pre-existing commitment to extend SSP to the self-employed, this would make 6.1 million additional working people eligible to claim SSP. The party said that its proposal would put an end to myriad legal cases over workers' rights involving companies in the gig economy, such as Uber and Deliveroo. Andy McDonald MP, Labour’s shadow employment rights and protections secretary, said frontline workers who had kept the UK going during the Covid-19 crisis would benefit from the plan. He said: “Millions of workers are in insecure employment with low