Over half of construction workers suffer from false self-employment, according to union UCATT.

The organisation made the claim after figures released by think-tank Resolution Foundation revealed self employment in the UK had risen by over a million people in the last 13 years.

UCATT claims a "significant proportion" of these workers are not genuinely self-employed, with construction workers forced to become falsely self-employed in order to keep their jobs.


It added companies do this in order to avoid paying sick leave, holiday pay, redundancy pay, travel allowances, and pension contributions.

The Government's Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) has been singled out as the "chief culprit", with employers designating workers as self-employed, deducting their tax as source, and avoiding all other obligations.

UCATT Acting General Secretary, Brian Rye, said the Resolution Foundation figures are a "sham".

"A significant proportion of these people are not really self-employed, they are just pawns in a Government sponsored tax dodge that benefits corporations," he said.

"UCATT spends an inordinate amount of time representing British workers who are abused by being forced into false self-employment. Our members will be employees of a construction company but will possess none of the employment rights an employee should have under the law."

(LM/MH)