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Philip Ross, a regular contributor to Shout99, and a 'veteran' campaigner in the freelancer movement, explains his latest report on how freelancers can work together for their own benefit.
Philip writes:
For many of us in our roles as IT freelancers we are looking for good practice in our efforts to build or update systems to ensure that they work in the changing business landscape.
There is a plethora of projects in the market running with a theme of ‘digital transformation’. What they all mean by that is open to interpretation, but what is clear is that the business landscape is changing and the expectations of consumers and business users have changed with it.
On another front what has changed is the landscape of work. According to Co-ops (UK) and other sources Government statistics show that 4.6 million people are now self-employed – the highest numbers in the UK since record began.
That is about 15 per cent of the workforce. The aspiration to do so is also strong, one in four people (27 per cent) of employees in medium-sized firms in the UK would like to work in self-employment (22 per cent in small firms, 14 per cent in the public sector).
This trend is going to continue as the number of freelancers is likely to grow further over the next year, reflecting a significant change in the pattern of work in the economy. The Royal Society of Arts predicts that as a group they will overtake those in the public sector by 2017/8.
There is considerable interest from trade unions and co-operatives on how to organise and deliver services to the growing army of self-employed. The good practise that I mentioned? There is considerable interest in IPSE and other associations, like the NUJ, Musicans, BECTU and Equity that represent and support freelancers.
Not alone
This week Co-operatives (UK) have published a report entitled ‘Not Alone’. I was one of the co-authors of the report. My background is that I was one of the founding members of PCG (IPSE) and was their first External Affairs Director and was deeply involved in the fight against IR35 and on fast track visas and in the struggle to establish PCG as a long term organisation. That was over 10 years ago.
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Today, though with the growth in self-employment, the issue between freelancers and temporary workers seems to have been replaced with a discussion between the low paid self-employed – the self-employed precariat (SEP) – and independent professionals.
IPSE have a great service in promoting the term IPros (Independent Professionals) in order to try and differentiate themselves. Because, if legislation follows to support the army of self employed then what we don’t want is a one size fits all solution for whole group, (with the resulting work-arounds for IPros, it sounds like some bad IT system).
Professional freelancers
We need a system that is designed to recognise the different groups working self employed. I think depending on the market you are in, it is like apples, oranges and pears. All different fruits but in the same basket but different. For example IT freelancers are competing against larger consultancies as well as against each other and so what to be treated as small businesses, whereas others, say actors and musicians, where much of the workforce is self-employed they want to be treated as ‘workers’. So you can’t have one set of treatment for all the self-employed, it needs to vary.
That is why this report is significant to professional freelancers. It doesn’t propose setting up a union for IT freelancers, instead it notes that IT freelancers, locum pharmacists and others have seen the need to organise and have successfully pooled their resources for insurance, legal protection and to give themselves a voice to Government.
It draws the conclusion that other self-employed workers could benefit from doing the same. It takes examples of how unions and co-operatives have worked together and how mutuals (like credit unions) have collaborated to provide services for the self-employed. It draws examples from the UK, Europe, India and the USA.
There are a number of examples across the UK of co-ops of self-employed workers, from 50 music teachers forming a co-operative to market their services to schools, to interpreters laid off by Capita providing interpretation services in judicial courts through a co-op.
But the report also identifies considerable scope for the growth of services in the UK, pointing to well-developed approaches overseas.
In the USA, the Freelancers' Union provides its 280,000 members with advice and insurance. In Belgium, SMart is a co-op offering invoicing and payments for 60,000 freelancer members. In France, new legislation allows self-employed workers to access the sickness pay and benefits of conventional employees through co-operatives.
Though not as much of an issue for IT freelancers (that is my background), the biggest issue for those in the so-called ‘gig economy’ where they are doing lots of short term assignments is having a contract and being paid on time. So when there is talk about rights for the self-employed, generally speaking it these two rights that are at the forefront.
New approach
So, my view is that unions and co-operatives need a new approach, one that goes beyond Government and policy to the wider labour movement. An approach that will see unions as much for the self employed as they are for the employed, using their muscle to make sure people are paid on time and given proper contracts.
That our co-operatives are agile enough to bring workers together to share costs, resources and work, helping people to recognise that they can be self employed and part of a co-op. Thirdly, for mutual societies to help workers get and guarantee loans. A keep part of this will be for people working as Schedule D self-employed that they can be part of a co-op and as self-employed. For those of us in limited companies it isn’t possible under current legislation.
In 1999 when IPSE was founded it blazed a trail showing how freelancers could use the internet to get organised, campaign and share resources. It is a good model and today in the age of digital transformations I want the wider freelancing workforce to learn these lessons to help all workers. Naturally I could see the unions, the co-operatives and the mutual coming together to make this happen.
In conclusion, I hope that the report will make a positive contribution to the debate on the self-employed and help to set a positive outlook, on that recognises that people don’t need rescuing from self-employment, but they want respect, an opportunity to organise for their common good and the means to collaborate.
Philip Ross
Philip started his own company as a freelancer on March 24 2016. He was a founded of IPSE and their first External Affair Director. The ‘Not Alone’ report, was written by Pat Conaty, Alex Bird and Philip Ross.here.
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Susie Hughes © Shout99 2016
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