Contractors deserve recognition and a separate category in labour market surveys and should not be lumped into default categories. That’s the view of experts following publication of the latest Snapshot of the labour market in the European Union by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), in which contractors were branded as ‘atypical’.
“While any acknowledgement of the growth in freelancing is welcome, this report appears to be focused on vulnerable workers – people who would prefer to be properly employed, with all the associated rights and protections,” notes PCG head of public affairs Simon McVicker. “Of course, freelancers, contractors and independent professionals do not fall into this category.”
And Professor Patricia Leighton, Emeritus Professor of Employment Law at the University of Glamorgan and Professor at the École Supérieure de Commerce à Paris et à Nice (Ipag), challenges what she calls the ILO’s old-fashioned language.
“Independent professionals are always defined in reference to something else, such as ‘non-employees’ or ‘non-standard’,” she believes. “Not only is ‘atypical’ a dated description, but I would challenge its statistical relevance, as in many European economies permanent full-time employees are in the minority, outnumbered by workers in ‘atypical’ forms of work!”
‘Atypical’ forms of employment are on the rise across Europe
Despite its inappropriate language in describing Europe’s flexible workforce, the ILO acknowledges that since 2008 temporary employment has increased in 19 European Union (EU) countries.
However, rather than acknowledging that temporary and contract work is often a lifestyle choice made voluntarily by skilled knowledge workers, the ILO claims that economic uncertainty has resulted in a reluctance of employers to offer “stable employment”.
The opportunities for mobile highly skilled knowledge workers across the EU are considerable
Professor Patricia Leighton
Furthermore, the ILO treats ‘atypical’ forms of employment as homogenous, even including temporary and part-time workers within the same category, when there are clearly many differences between them.
Leighton explains: “Independent professionals such as contractors and freelancers are defined by their high level of skills and qualifications, and shouldn’t be lumped as part of these two groups. That’s because these groups form the bulk of the self-employed, who are typically working in retail, farming, craft and artisan occupations, and are low skilled contingent temporary workers.”
Unnecessary focus on low-skill, long-term unemployed
According to Leighton, the ILO’s report also fails contractors with its focus on the challenges of dealing with the low-skilled, long-term unemployed, and not on the opportunities arising through skills shortages.
“All the talk of ‘doom and gloom’ ignores that fact that there are over a million job vacancies across the EU remaining unfilled because of skills shortages,” continues Leighton. “Many of the vacancies are in sectors where independent professionals flourish.
“The opportunities for mobile highly skilled knowledge workers across the EU are considerable. We are finding that many of the independent professionals we have interviewed for EFIP and PCG sponsored research due for publication shortly are migrants.”
Does employment in the UK’s labour market remain below pre-recession levels?
The ILO’s data places the UK’s labour market in the intermediate category of increasing employment, but yet to reach pre-recession levels. Only five countries – Hungary, Malta, Luxembourg, Germany and Austria – have exceeded pre-crisis employment rates.
We hope that as freelancing and contracting continues to grow as a positive lifestyle choice, bodies such as the ILO recognise the many benefits freelancers bring to the economy and include them in their reports in a much more positive light
Simon McVicker, PCG
But with the most recent Labour Market Statistics published by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing record levels of employment in the UK, the UK’s position may be more positive than shown by the ILO.
McVickers says: “Along with our colleagues in the European Forum of Independent Professionals (EFIP), we continue to lobby for recognition of independent professionals across Europe.”
He concludes: “We hope that as freelancing and contracting continues to grow as a positive lifestyle choice, bodies such as the ILO recognise the many benefits freelancers bring to the economy and include them in their reports in a much more positive light.”