WIREDGOV

Employers and workers get to have their say on modern employment practices as government-backed Matthew Taylor Review team launches its UK tour.

Last October (2016), Matthew Taylor was asked by the Prime Minister to conduct an independent review to look at whether employment practices need to change in order to keep pace with modern business models.

Matthew and the review’s expert panel will launch their nationwide tour, with cities including Glasgow, Norwich, Cardiff, Belfast and Newcastle among those being visited to collect evidence and build an understanding of how people work in different parts of the country.

The team will today (14 February 2017) meet entrepreneurs and workers at Google Campus in east London to find out about the capital’s labour market and to understand the impact of new ways of working on employment rights.

They will go on to host a town hall-style event, where workers, employers, business owners and representative groups from London will give evidence on their experiences to help inform the review.

Matthew Taylor said:

Most people recognise that we need as many jobs as possible in our economy and that the flexibility of our labour market is a strength. But people also want work to be fair and decent and to offer opportunities for progression and fulfilment.

The question is: what can we do to make work better without undermining our country’s excellent record on job creation?

We’ve started working through these complex questions and now is just the right time to hear the views of businesses, employees, the self-employed and the public as a whole.

Business Minister Margot James said:

The Matthew Taylor Review is hugely important in helping us understand whether employment rights need to change to keep up with the various new ways people can work.

It is symbolic that Matthew will launch his country-wide regional tour in London, where thousands of people are already working in ways completely different from only a few years ago.

I’d encourage everyone to take part in the review to make sure their views on the modern labour market are heard.

With 15% of those working in the UK’s labour market now self-employed, there has been a rise in the number of people doing ‘gig’ work – short-term, casual work that is increasingly sought by people through mobile phone apps when they want to work.

These roles can include driving, delivering items and DIY tasks. This is one of the areas the review will consider. The massive expansion of ‘disruptive’ businesses – where new ways of working and technology come together to create new products and services to better meet consumer demand – is also leading to a change in working practices.

The 3 expert panel members for the Taylor review are:

• Paul Broadbent – Chief Executive of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA), formerly assistant chief constable at Nottinghamshire Police.
• Greg Marsh (entrepreneur) – Founder and formerly Chair and Chief Executive of onefinestay. He works with Amnesty International as an elected member of the charity’s Finance and Audit Committee, and is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College Business School.
• Diane Nicol (employment lawyer) - Diane is a Partner at law firm Pinsent Masons specialising in employment law. She has over 20 years of experience of industrial relations disputes, senior exits and employment terms and conditions.

People can also take part in the review by contributing their experiences and ideas online, and by accessing tickets to the team’s town hall-style events via the review’s Dialogue page.