Tag: self-employment

I sit on the Dáil committee for Social Protection. Today we queried Department officials, and got less than satisfactory answers, on BOGUS SELF-EMPLOYMENT. It’s basically a scam that lets the actual employer off the hook of responsibility to their workers and has been better described as ‘social dumping’. And its allowed on state-funded projects! And what about worklplace inspections? compliance? prosecutions? From where I sat, there appeared to be little Social Protection and a lot of tip-toeing around exploitative companies and employers.

I spoke in favor of a SF bill to give some security and certainty to many workers trapped on low hours and insecure contracts. Such contracts are used by many big firms whose profits are back to pre crash levels. Dunnes and many other retail and hotel/food sector use them and its effects on workers lives can be devastating. Brid also asks if the proposers of the bill would consider including bogus self-employment, such as used by firms like ‘Deliveroo’, to avoid their responsibility to workers