Monthly Archives: October 2022

Government response to Employment Status Review

The government has now responded to the results of their 2018 consultation on Employment Statuses. (The full response can be seen in this document – pdf). The Tl;dr version of it is (paraphrasing very liberally) “people who don’t like the … Continue reading

Posted in CJRS & SEISS, Employment Law and Rights, Employment status, Freelance working, Freelancer rights, Gig economy workers, IR35, Tax | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Freelancers and their parental rights

I’ve had a request to write a briefing on UK parental rights for freelancers on my to-do list for a while, so I was very pleased to discover the website of Maternity Action which seems to answer most of the … Continue reading

Posted in Employment Law and Rights, Family rights, Freelance working, Freelancer rights, Gender equality, Welfare and benefits, Wellbeing, Work-life balance | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

IR35 is back (it never went away). What reforms are needed?

I had planned to post this a few weeks ago, but then Kwasi Kwarteng’s Growth Plan scuppered all of that with its oddly-framed decision to “scrap IR35”. However, we can carry on as usual now that Jeremy Hunt has reversed … Continue reading

Posted in Employment intermediaries, Employment Law and Rights, Employment status, ESM4118, Gig economy workers, IR35, Loan arrangements, Productivity, Tax | Tagged | Leave a comment

‘The Growth Plan’ seems to be on it’s knees. What does this mean for Bectu freelance members?

Update: I’m not deleting this post because I think deleting posts is usually a mistake. But I will say that most of what it contained on the 14th October 2022 was irrelevant three days later as the BBC’s Faisal Islam … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, IR35, National Insurance Contributions (NICs), Tax | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Some useful resources when discussing the impact of long hours working

Going through some old files, I’ve found a few things that should prove useful. They’re mostly resources that I pulled together in preparation for the #eyeshalfshut report in 2017. There was the Who Needs Sleep documentary (2006) in which filmmaker … Continue reading

Posted in Long hours, Safe working practices, Work-life balance | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Living Wage Foundation brings its annual announcement forward

As reported here in the summer, The Living Wage Foundation has brought forward their announcement of the annual Living Wage/London Living Wage increase. The new figures are £10.90 (90p increase)/£11.95 (£1 increase) respectively – the largest ever annual increase (last … Continue reading

Posted in Inflation, Low pay, Minimum wage rates, Pay & inflation, Wages and Pay-rates, Wealth inequality | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Earnings growth – private sector workers outpace the public sector

Incomes Data Services (IDS) are reporting…. “Average earnings growth was 6.8% in the private sector in the year to August, contrasting with a growth rate of 2.2% in the public sector (excluding financial services)…” One would think this is encouraging … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Inflation | Tagged | 1 Comment

UK independent productions, the inflation punch-in-the-mouth, and the very European remedies.

The boxer, Mike Tyson, was once asked about his plan for a fight and he answered; “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Economists have a variation on that line: “Everyone has a plan until inflation … Continue reading

Posted in EU & Brexit, Feature film data, Film & TV industry data, Film & TV industry policy, High End TV data, Low budget features, Public Service Broadcasting, Quotas, Regulation, Skills & capacity, SVoD, Tax incentives, UK studios | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment