黑料社

KEN Loach鈥檚 film, , tells the harrowing tale of Ricky, Abby and their family鈥檚 attempts to get by in a precarious world of low-paid jobs and the so-called 鈥済ig economy鈥�.

But how realistic is it?  Can Loach鈥檚 film be accused of undue pessimism?  After all, UK government ministers  the gig economy and the freedom and flexibility of being an 鈥渆veryday entrepreneur鈥�.

A , by myself and employment expert , investigates what we know about the gig economy, in order to get a clearer picture of what is really going on in the contemporary world of work in the UK.

Narrowly conceived, the gig economy means workers (as independent contractors) doing discrete, short-term tasks 鈥� or 鈥済igs鈥� 鈥� for companies via  such as Deliveroo, Amazon or Uber.  As  describes them, these are 鈥渓abour contracts that are as temporary as is possible for them to be鈥�.

We argue that it is better to see the gig economy as part of a wider shift towards insecure forms of work.  Long-term unemployment is no longer a serious social policy problem, but standard, full-time, long-term employment is also much less common.

More and more people are churning from 鈥渙ne shit job to another shit job鈥�, as Ricky puts it in Loach鈥檚 film, punctuated with periods of unemployment.  And, as Loach observed (in a Q&A session following a preview), Sorry We Missed You is a sequel to the 2016 film , which explores the degradations of the UK鈥檚 benefit system.

These are two sides of the same coin, as  on 鈥渢he low-pay, no-pay cycle鈥� has shown. Many of these jobs are on zero-hours contracts, which although illegal across much of the EU, have boomed in the UK.

There were  of these contracts in 2007.  Ten years later, in 2017, there were over 1.8 million.

Employers insist that workers want this 鈥渇lexibility鈥�.  But  would prefer a fixed-hours contract.

Degraded work conditions

The government celebrates high levels of employment, but  since the 2008 financial crash has been in self-employment or .  Much of this self-employment appears to be bogus.  Just like in Sorry We Missed You, employers designate workers as 鈥渋ndependent contractors鈥� to cut wage costs and employment rights.

Investigative journalism  the degraded work conditions of 鈥渟elf-employed鈥� delivery drivers like Ricky: intense pressure to meet delivery schedules, breaking speed limits, snatching meals on the run, urinating into plastic bottles rather than stopping, barely making the national minimum wage.

Even a  found that 鈥渟ome companies are using self-employed workforces as cheap labour鈥�, damaging workers鈥� well-being in order to 鈥渋ncrease profits鈥�.

If not bogus, then much self-employment is likely to be 鈥渇orced鈥�, perceived as the only alternative to being unemployed.  This was typical of the 鈥測oung entrepreneurs鈥�  in the 1980s.

Held up as role models for Margaret Thatcher鈥檚 鈥渆nterprise culture鈥�, their ambitions were, in fact, much more prosaic.  Rather than go on the dole, they used the (recently re-launched)  to set up 鈥渕icro-businesses鈥� 鈥� knitting jumpers, repairing bicycles, freelance photography 鈥� keeping going by undercutting other businesses and by gross self-exploitation.  Very few succeeded over the long term.

Most plodded along until, exhausted, demoralised and in debt, they closed down their businesses.  Low pay is also typical of more recent forced self-employment and has been a key factor in the UK鈥檚 shift towards low paid work.

Across the research, we found ten things that were common to workers鈥� experiences of this new, insecure labour market:

• Modest aspirations (people were not looking to get rich quick but wanted regular work and to be able to pay the bills)
• Lack of choice
• Disempowerment (employers now have 鈥渄isciplinary discretion鈥� to withhold offers of work to people on zero-hours contracts)
• Insecurity of work
• Insecurity of income
• Low pay
• Debt
• Exploitation
• Self-exploitation
• Anxiety

One of the duties of critical social science is to question fashionable ideas.  We should be particularly alert when comfortably placed, middle-aged politicians exhort younger people to 鈥渢ake up opportunities鈥� that they themselves would never dream of going near.

Would government ministers be quite so  about the gig economy if they had to surrender their fixed salaries, paid holidays and pension schemes in favour of working a daily schedule so gruelling that toilet stops are impossible and the minimum wage cannot be earned?

All of us 鈥� the public who rely on the services of the gig economy just as much as the politicians who proclaim its virtues 鈥� need to wake up to the reality that, in this instance, 鈥渇lexibility鈥� is just another word for exploitation.