Year: 1975
Type: article
Abstract: THIS article will examine some of the legal aspects of the lump and self-employment.What is the lump?Put simply, it is a body of men who work in the building and construction industries as selfemployed, mainly to obtain the advantages of such status and avoid the disadvantages of the status of employment.There are a variety of arrangements which lump labour can use but the most common are for a sub-contractor, either a small private company or an individual, to agree with another contractor, usually much larger, to provide a labour force for a particular job on a particular site, or for a group of men in a partnership to be self-employed, usually with a gang leader.The men work under a labour-only subcontract, that is, they provide their own labour and possibly a few simple tools but the main contractor provides the materials and any machinery required. THE PHELPS BROWN REPORTThe classic study of the building industry and its problems is contained in the report of the Phelps Brown Committee.'In a very extensive survey the main problems revealed regarding the lump were in relation to safety, lack of protection under the Industrial In juries scheme, evasion of tax and national insurance obligations, the quality of the work, and the frustration of effcctive collective bargaining arrangements.All these problems arose in the industry because there is an abnormally large element of selfemployment.The Committee put forward three main proposals regarding the lump.They werc:(1) A register should be kept of employers in the construction industry and employers could go on the register if they could prove they were genuine employers and had adequate insurance cover.Genuine self-employed persons would also be able to register.(2) Anyone engaged in construction paying for construction work to be done by anyone other than a registered person should be deemed to be the employer of that person for all purposes.(3) In cases where it is difficult to establish the liability of one of many sub-contractors working on the main site, employer's liability should be extended vicariously to the superior contractor. AFTER PHEI.PS BROWN Legislation somewhat on these lines was proposed in the Construction Industry Contracts Bill 1970.A register would be set
Source: Modern Law Review
Author: B. I. MordsleyLL.M.(Lond.)
Language: English
Topic: Labor Law and Work Dynamics
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2322223087