Unite, the construction union, has welcomed the publication of a
groundbreaking report, which makes the case for a major increase in
direct employment in the electrical contracting sector. The report
titled: Direct Employment A Study of Economic Business and Social
Outcomes has been written by Howard Gospel, Emeritus Professor of
Management at King’s College London. In undertaking his research,
Professor Gospel draws on interviews with over 50 experts, industry
materials, government...Request free
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Unite, the construction union, has welcomed
the publication of a groundbreaking report, which makes the case
for a major increase in direct employment in the electrical
contracting sector.
The report titled: Direct
Employment A Study of Economic Business and Social Outcomes has
been written by Howard Gospel, Emeritus Professor of Management at
King’s College London. In undertaking his research, Professor
Gospel draws on interviews with over 50 experts, industry
materials, government reports and peer-reviewed academic
research.
The report was commissioned by the
Electrotechnical Joint Industry Board, which sets the
standards for employment, welfare, grading and apprentice training
in the electrical contracting
industry.
Professor Gospel found that levels of
direct employment in electrical contracting had declined more
sharply in the UK than nearly any other country. He described this
as not a ‘natural phenomenon’ but a result of specific actions and
decisions taken over many years by industry clients, contractors
and successive governments, especially in areas of procurement,
tax, social security and employment
law.
The decline in direct employment has led to
a sharp increases in genuine self-employment, false self-employment
and what the report describes as “false direct employment through
intermediaries of various kinds” (such as payroll
companies).
Professor Gospel recognised that there are
short term advantages for companies that avoided directly employing
electricians. But he argues that these short-term advantages are
outweighed by long-term disadvantages. He notes that for workers
while 'take-home pay may be higher for some, this is not always the
case and it is certainly not the case over a working
life'.
Gospel highlights the negative effects of
non-direct employment, stressing that this is especially grim for
skills training and threatens apprentice training, career
progression and the industry’s capacity to take up new technologies
and techniques.
The professor further notes that non-direct
employment reduces health, safety and wellbeing and undermines
industry regulations. It also reduces productivity and, from a
wider society viewpoint, it reduces tax receipts that fund public
services.
Gospel’s solutions to increase direct
employment are two-fold: Firstly, clients and large contractors
need to demonstrate leadership by awarding contracts to companies
that directly employ their workers and that they also need to
enforce direct employment throughout their supply
chain.
Secondly, there is a need for public policy
changes including removing artificial incentives towards false
self-employment and false direct self-employment through the tax
system.
Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail, who contributed to
the report, said: “This excellent and detailed report must act as a
game changer in shifting attitudes to direct employment, both in
the electrical industry in particular and the entire construction
industry in general.
“Vitally, the report identifies that government policies have
allowed for the decline in direct employment and that crucially a
great deal of the solution to the industry’s problems are in the
government’s hands.
“The conclusions on skills are staggering. Effectively the industry
is strangling itself to death. Unless immediate action is taken it
won’t meet the challenges to recruit new workers or meet future
challenges such as the green industrial revolution.
“Rather than sweep the findings of this report under the carpet,
clients, large contractors and the government need to accept its
findings, adopt its recommendations and lobby others to follow
suit.”
To help promote direct employment Unite is
working together with the Joint Industry Board (the national
agreement for electricians) and the Electrotechnical Certification
Scheme (ECS) to promote ECS Check, a new online system that allows
main contractors and clients to check the qualifications and
training of electricians working on their
projects.
The union has also persuaded around 60
local authorities to sign construction charters which commit them
to requiring companies that are rewarded local government contracts
to directly employ the workers on such
contracts.
ENDS
Notes to
editors:
During
the coronavirus crisis Unite is working to keep workers and the
public safe, to defend jobs and to protect
incomes.
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