Employment Status

[An advertisement for the forthcoming 2 Gray's Inn Square discrimination seminar appears below]

The European Commission has produced a fascinating document on employment status across EU states. It has the snappy title:

"Economically dependant / quasi-subordinate (parasubordinate) employment: legal, social and economic aspects"

and comes in at a mere 141 pages. The report is not officially released until (I think) next week, but there is a sneak preview available on the European Commission website.

The report examines the distinction between employees and the self-employed, and considers what criteria are used in different countries to distinguish the two categories. It goes on to consider reform of the current distinction in all the member states and considers whether a community-wide definition is practical.

Amongst the dross are some interesting statistics (see pages 69+). In the year 2000 (the most recent year covered):
• 11.8% of the UK workforce were self-employed;
• 25% of UK employees were part-time employees (44% of all women, compared with 9% of all men);
• 6.2% of UK employees were on fixed-term contracts.