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and products like it represent a genuine threat to both our privacy and our security, a HAL for every home? Or is the reality that our comfort level with more invasive technologies is now such that any concerns are attenuated by the obvious benefits and convenience these products provide? Is concern in this case trying to close the pod bay doors after the privacy horse has bolted? As with much in this space, perhaps the answer lies somewhere between the two. It seems that while the Silicon Valley mantra “move fast and break things” continues to set the tone in this space, the most recent casualty is surely domestic privacy. The next 12 months are likely to play host to a fascinating privacy debate, with the very real possibility of a conclusion that we are willing to accept Big Brother at home, provided that it delivers on its promise of convenience (and offers reasonable Lightning Deals on grocery products). In the meantime, “Alexa, tell me more about 1984”. Alex Ford-Cox is a trainee solicitor at Shoosmiths. He is based in the firm’s Birmingham office The gig economy – Uber and Deliveroo Question How is the gig economy affecting employment status? Answer The ‘gig economy’ describes a working practice whereby individuals are paid for the ‘gigs’ they do rather than for their time. A gig could be delivering takeaway food (eg, Deliveroo riders) or collecting and dropping off
such as the national minimum wage, statutory sick pay and holiday. The tax angle to the debate is an important (and expensive) one. Employers need not pay employer national insurance contributions in respect of self-employed people. Similarly, self-employed people can structure their tax arrangements in such a way as to ensure that they pay less tax than they would do if they were an employee for tax purposes, (eg, by channelling payments made to them through a limited liability company). The Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that in terms of lost tax revenue, the cost to the Treasury of the gig economy will reach £3.5 billion a year in 2020-21. The tests as regards employment status currently differ for the purposes of tax and employment law (although this may change in light of the recently published Taylor Review, discussed below). This article focuses on employment law. Categories of employment status In the United Kingdom, there are three types of employment status: • self-employed; • worker; and • employee. The category into which an individual falls determines the level of protection afforded to that individual under UK employment law. The self- employed have the least protection and employees have the most. Workers sit in the middle, benefiting from some but not all of the protections afforded to employees. For example, both workers and employees have a statutory right to paid holidays and to receive the national minimum wage. However, only employees benefit from the right not to be unfairly dismissed and to redundancy pay (in each case, if they have two years’ service with their employer).
passengers (eg, Uber drivers). Gig economy businesses tend to use apps to connect the individuals working for them with the work. Most individuals working in the gig economy do so on the basis that they are self-employed. As such, they have fewer employment rights than those falling within the two other categories of employment status that we recognise in the United Kingdom (workers and employees). Whether individuals working in the gig economy can rightly be classified as self-employed is the reason for the gig economy currently being the subject of so much scrutiny; it presents a new way of working that challenges the three UK categories of employment status. While these categories (and the tests for determining who falls into which category) remain unchanged, the gig economy has provided a new set of facts to which these categories and tests must be applied. The gig economy debate Depending on your view, the gig economy represents either a modern way of working that enables flexibility, or an exploitative business model which deprives individuals of basic employment rights. Supporters of the gig economy for both the individual and the company: individuals can work flexibly, choosing the days on which they make themselves available for gigs, while businesses do not incur staff costs when demand is not there. In contrast, critics of the gig economy would say that it is a socially irresponsible working practice which allows businesses to avoid paying employer national insurance contributions and denies individuals access to basic employment rights, would say that the working arrangements are beneficial
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