Practice of retailers in UK hiring workers on gig economy apps opposed

Paddy Lillis, general secretary of the UK Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), and Kate Bell, assistant general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), recently wrote to the chief executives of retailers Urban Outfitters, Lush, Gymshark, Uniqlo and Emma Sleep, challenging the use of freelance retail staff to undermine workers’ rights.

Some retailers recruited temporary shop assistants for the busy festive period through gig economy apps promoted by online influencers.

The letter urged the retailers to stop using freelance retail workers amid concerns they were missing out on significant employment rights, including the legal minimum wage, sick pay, ?holiday pay, rest breaks and ?protection from unfair dismissal.

“Retail is a vital part of the UK economy, providing 2.9 million jobs in the United Kingdom. Especially at this time of year, retail workers work extremely hard to make your shoppers’ experience as enjoyable as possible. In return retail workers deserve decent pay, security and investment in their skills and training,” said the letter.

“It is therefore extremely worrying to discover that your retail chains are among those recruiting so-called ‘freelance’ workers operating on a self-employed basis as detailed by the Observer and Financial Times newspapers this week. Anyone looking at this arrangement from outside would consider it laughable that the person serving them was a self-employed worker akin to a visiting tradesperson, rather than the permanent or temporary worker for your business,” it noted.

“Employment rights are not a ‘nice to have’ that employers can opt in and out of at will. They ensure that workers are paid properly, that they have sufficient rest breaks to safeguard their health and that they are not discriminated against. We urge you to end this practice immediately and ensure that all your workers receive the rights and protections that they deserve as directly employed or agency workers,” the trade union leaders added.

Both the unions said they will press the government to improve measures to crack down on bogus self-employment and modernise the legal test for ‘worker’ status to ensure that protections are extended to all workers to whom it was intended.

Uniqlo admitted to briefly using the Temper app to hire workers to supplement its full-time team, and said it had now ceased the practice.

“This was the first and only time that staff have been recruited this way and there are no plans to use this method in the future,” Lush was quoted as saying by a British media outlet.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)