OREANDA-NEWS  Last October (2016), Matthew Taylor was asked by the Prime Minister to conduct an independent review to look at whether employment practices need to change in order to keep pace with modern business models.

Matthew and the review’s expert panel will launch their nationwide tour, with cities including Glasgow, Norwich, Cardiff, Belfast and Newcastle among those being visited to collect evidence and build an understanding of how people work in different parts of the country.

The team will today (14 February 2017) meet entrepreneurs and workers at Google Campus in east London to find out about the capital’s labour market and to understand the impact of new ways of working on employment rights.

They will go on to host a town hall-style event, where workers, employers, business owners and representative groups from London will give evidence on their experiences to help inform the review.

Matthew Taylor said:

Most people recognise that we need as many jobs as possible in our economy and that the flexibility of our labour market is a strength. But people also want work to be fair and decent and to offer opportunities for progression and fulfilment.

The question is: what can we do to make work better without undermining our country’s excellent record on job creation?

We’ve started working through these complex questions and now is just the right time to hear the views of businesses, employees, the self-employed and the public as a whole.

Business Minister Margot James said:

The Matthew Taylor Review is hugely important in helping us understand whether employment rights need to change to keep up with the various new ways people can work.

It is symbolic that Matthew will launch his country-wide regional tour in London, where thousands of people are already working in ways completely different from only a few years ago.

I’d encourage everyone to take part in the review to make sure their views on the modern labour market are heard.

With 15% of those working in the UK’s labour market now self-employed, there has been a rise in the number of people doing ‘gig’ work – short-term, casual work that is increasingly sought by people through mobile phone apps when they want to work.

These roles can include driving, delivering items and DIY tasks. This is one of the areas the review will consider. The massive expansion of ‘disruptive’ businesses – where new ways of working and technology come together to create new products and services to better meet consumer demand – is also leading to a change in working practices.