John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

For some time in numerous sectors, bogus self-employment has created big winners and even bigger losers. For an employer who classifies an employee as self-employed, there is no employer PRSI to pay, no pension contributions to make, no sick leave payments, no paternity or maternity leave payments, no redundancy payments, and no annual leave or public holiday payments to make. For a worker misclassified as self-employed, it means fewer entitlements to social welfare supports, if and when needed. There is no access to an occupational pension. There is no sick pay, paternity leave or maternity leave. It means no job security and no protection from unfair dismissal. It means not having enough PRSI contributions to qualify for a State pension on retirement.

The winner is the fraudulent employer who dodges responsibility by bypassing the employment laws of the land. The losers are those who pay the price for the actions of their employer, the workers. The big loser, however, is the State, which suffers major losses in PRSI contributions, having serious consequences for the public finances and the Exchequer. In the construction sector alone, ICTU has estimated the loss of PRSI paid to the State due to bogus self-employment as €640 million over eight years. That is only one sector in which we know bogus self-employment is an issue.

This Bill stands up for the workers and the State. It seeks not only to make it an offence to issue a self-employment contract to an employee but it goes much further in ensuring the self-employed receive basic rights and protections.

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