Evaluating the working conditions of the dependent self-employed

Abstract

Purpose In recent years, there has been a concern that employers are falsely classifying employees as self-employed to evade collective agreements and labour laws (e.g. minimum wages, working time legislation and protection in case of redundancy), and the result is that these dependent self-employed suffer poorer working conditions. The purpose of this paper is to provide an extensive evaluation of the working conditions of those in dependent self-employment compared with the genuine self-employed. Design/methodology/approach To do so, data are reported from a 2015 European Working Conditions Survey of 35,765 workers in 28 European Union member states. Findings Of the 4.3 per cent of the working population found to be in dependent self-employment, the finding is that they have similar working conditions to the genuine self-employed in terms of their physical and social environment and intensity of work. However, they have poorer job prospects and less ability to use their skills and discretion than the genuine self-employed. In terms of the working time quality, meanwhile, the finding is that they have better conditions than the genuine self-employed. Therefore, this analysis uncovers the need for a more nuanced understanding of the relative working conditions of the dependent self-employed. Research limitations/implications If the working conditions of the dependent self-employed are to be tackled, evaluation is now required of whether the current policy approaches, such as developing a hybrid category of employment with legal rights attached, address the specific working conditions that are worse for the dependent self-employed. Originality/value This is one of the few papers which provides an extensive evaluation of the working conditions of those in dependent self-employment in the EU28.

Grey workers in the European Union: precariousness among economically dependent solo self-employed

“…Based on the most problematized disempowering and vulnerable working conditions among dependent (solo) self-employed (Mühlberger, 2007; Murgia and Pulignano, 2021; Horodnic and Williams, 2019; Florin and Pichault, 2020; Millán et al. , 2020), WP was operationalized through five questionnaire items (all five-point Likert scales, 1-Strongly agree – 5 Strongly disagree): “You can take a break when you wish?”, “You are able to apply your own ideas in your work?”, “You can influence decisions that are important for your work?”, “Considering all my efforts and achievements in my job, I feel I get paid appropriately?”, and “If I had a long-term sickness, I would be financially secure?”.…”

“…, 2020) [4]. Horodnic and Williams (2019) used more recent EWCS 2015 to compare working conditions of the “grey&pure” dependent to independent solo self-employed workers in the EU28. The dependent ones scored higher on the “working time quality” index (e.g.…”

“…The present study further elucidates the non-ideal-type(s) of self-employed by focusing on the least romanticized group, i.e. those most prone to WP nowadays: the economically dependent solo self-employed (M€ uhlberger, 2007;Horodnic and Williams, 2019;Carrasco and Hernanz, 2021). Due to their economic dependency, using an oversimplified binary division of the labor market, the group is positioned between the traditional (fully) dependent employees and (fully) autonomous self-employed (Murgia et al, 2020).…”

“…Second, far-reaching empirical findings in the field are overall scarce, oftentimes industry-specific (Th€ ornquist, 2015;Cruz et al, 2017;Moore and Newsome, 2018), and mainly refer to the dark grey sub-group of dependent solo self-employed, whose autonomy is reduced beyond mere economic dependency [1] (Williams and Horodnic, 2018;Carrasco and Hernanz, 2021). Additionally, while notable achievements in exploring the (sub)group's prevalence and its basic characteristics were reached at the country and EU level (M€ uhlberger and Pasqua, 2009;Williams and Horodnic, 2018;Murgia and Pulignano, 2021), comprehensive quantitative studies on more complex characteristics such as job prospects and work autonomy employed simplified approaches in IJSSP 43,7/8 estimating the model parameters and/or in measuring the constructs (Horodnic and Williams, 2019;Florin and Pichault, 2020). WP as such, to the best of our knowledge, has not yet been thoroughly analyzed in the considered population.…”

Dependent self-employed individuals: are they different from paid employees?

“…This study focusses on one of these identified categories of self-employment – dependent self-employment, which is associated with the most problematic labour market-related aspects (Behling and Harvey, 2015; Moore and Newsome, 2018; Horodnic and Williams, 2019a, b; Millán et al ., 2020). Dependent self-employment covers a situation where a person conducts the same tasks and works for the same employer as a typical worker whilst on a self-employment contractual basis, i.e.…”