One party state leader accused of hypocrisy over self-employment!

WE are publishing below a letter from Steve Fisher aka 'Starlord' that was sent to the Tameside Reporter & Chronicle last month but was not published.  Mr Fisher, a tenant of New Charter Housing, who own the Reporter, under the guise of 'Quest Media Ltd', in the one party state of Tameside, has been proscribed and deemed a "prolific complainant" by New Charter and banned from entering their business premises since 2007. His letter, was a response to Tameside Council leader, Kieran Quinn (pictured below).

'The Leader' accused of Hypocrisy

"I read 'The Leaders' Column', Tameside Reporter (3rd Nov 2016), with astonishment! Cllr. Kieran Quinn thinks Self-employment is 'here to stay'. Does he mean  bogus self-employment or the truly self-employed 'Sole Trader' like myself ? Should I call myself a Sole Trader to differentiate myself from the rising mass of bogus self-employed? 

Ironically, the very existence of thousands of real self-employed people, is imperilled by the roll-out of Universal Credit. Why? Because they are not subject to the National Living Wage, but that's changing for the worse. 

To qualify for Working Tax Credit (WTC), HMRC require that all work done be 'for payment or in expectation of payment', and they must work at least 16 hours p/w part-time or 3o hours p/w full-time. WTC is paid if earnings are low, zero, or if making a loss. But WTC is being merged into Universal Credit and thousands of self-employed Sole Traders will be forced onto the dole, while bogus self-employment is on the rise! 

Some organisations exploit tax loop-holes to employ people 'as if' self-employed. It's part of the tax avoidance/evasion scam. It is indeed "an excuse for companies to avoid their duties and obligations in terms of things like sick pay, holiday pay, the minimum wage and pensions." But this is precisely what Tameside Council are doing! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! 

Many of the bogus self-employed are little more than slaves without workers rights and none of the freedoms of self-employment. They have little or no control over what they do. If they don't do as the Company commands they don't get the work. Self-employment lets them dodge their employment responsibilities, and health and safety legislation. It's 'my way or the highway'! 

A client of mine was indirectly employed by Tameside Council. He worked 'as if' a council employee alongside council employees, but he has no contract with the Council. He's an agency worker. Many years ago he worked directly for Tameside Council doing the same work. 

You wouldn't believe how much paperwork he had to deal with, reading, signing, scanning and emailing, merely to secure simple paid work. It's bad enough claiming Universal Credit and trying to avoid benefit sanctions, but this scam is even more devious. 

Let me explain. As a self-employed consultant I helped him to complete all 'paperwork', did some online research, and made some phonecalls on his behalf. He couldn't have done this alone, but the tale's even more twisted. 

He was employed by 'Service Care Solutions Ltd.', Preston, who procure workers for Tameside Council via AGMA. Much cheaper than hiring workers directly. He has few employment rights and no union protection, but that's a Labour Council for ya! 

This situation was exacerbated when SCS hired a payroll company, 'Freelance Professional Services Ltd.', to pay his weekly wage into his bank account. They have an office in Viking House, Ramsey, but their HQ is on the ISLE OF MAN! The bells begin to ring! 

FPS then created a separate company to act as his direct employer, and so he became a de-facto employee of his very own company Limited by Guarantee, and working for himself. These are known as Umbrella Companies. FPS act as Tax Agent with HMRC. I say de-facto because he had to sign and agree to a 36-point 'Administrative Terms & Conditions' form, many of which are legalistic and complex and completely unreasonable. He'd already been working for a week! Don't sign, don't get paid, lose the job, and then try to re-claim Universal Credit which would be refused because he'd left his job voluntarily. Not much of a choice! Whatever happened to workers rights? 

He had to "agree to adopt a flexible working approach and opt out of the 'working time regulations'", agree to data sharing, breaching his Data Protection rights, and that FPS be appointed Company Administrator placing them in control of the very company that they set-up in his name without his permission. 

The job was advertised as £8.60 per hour, but his actual pay after deductions was £7.20 per hour. It's as if they'd calculated backwards to get this figure! He did not receive the full advertised rate because he had to pay two lots of taxes and two lots of National Insurance, one for the company and one for himself, and holiday pay manipulations. What a con!

He hadn't a clue what was happening. He just wanted to work, but had little choice in the matter. It's all seemingly legal, but very dodgy! 

There are 4 separate 'legal entities' in-between the worker and Tameside Council, which includes AGMA, the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities! 

The Leader says, "that HMRC have set up an 'Employment Status and Intermediaries Scheme' that will react to complaints and investigate companies that have declared a high amount [number] of self employed workers." Very good and about time, BUT how high is high? Will this include the likes of Tameside Council? It certainly should! So where do I go to report TMBC?"

Tameside Council's shabby employment practices!

WELCOME to the world of 'flexible employment'.  According to the UK Department for Business, Innovation, & Skills (BIS), there are an estimated four million temporary workers in Britain, who work for what are called ,'umbrella' companies.

An umbrella company is a company that acts as an employer to agency contractors who work under a fixed term contract assignment, usually through a recruitment employment agency in the United Kingdom.  Recruitment agencies issue contracts to a limited company as the agency liability would be reduced.

It has come to our attention that the Labour controlled Tameside Council, is recruiting staff to undertake various jobs via what is euphemistically termed, 'flexible working' 
practices, which involves a person working through an agency, an administrator, who in turn, set up a company limited by guarantee, who become the persons sole employer.

In this particular case, Tameside Council (the end client) have been hiring workers through 'Service Care Construction' (the agency), who employ 'Freelance Professional Services Ltd' (FPS), (the company administrator - payroll operator), who then create a company for a particular worker.  These companies are often recycled as contracts end and new contracts are entered into.  'Service Care', work with over 250 local authorities, 100 housing associations, and many clients in the private sector across the UK.  FPS, are based in Ramsey, Isle of Man, a well- known UK tax haven. The aim of this kind of structure is to circumvent many kind of UK regulations such as employment rights and EU directives.

An unemployed Tameside resident who wishes to remain anonymous, recently sought temporary full-time work with Tameside Council through 'Service Care Construction'. Although he'd previously been on the governments 'Work Programme' for two-years, he completely lacked the necessary computer skills to complete the highly complex recruitment process which was mainly done online, even though he'd been given the job.  In desperation and in fear that he might lose the job before he'd even started, he phoned a friend for help.

We are reliably informed that the first stage of the recruitment process took 4 hours and a number of phone calls.  Completely baffled, he was asked to submit numerous pieces of documentaion online and to sign a digital contract that required six signatures.  References, driving licenses, utility bills and his P60 all had to scanned in the right format for it to be emailed. All this, and much more, simply to get a temporary labourers job!  One might ask, just what is the world coming to?

But this was not the end of it. Stage 2 involved protracted negotiations with 'Freelance Professional Service Ltd' who pride themselves on providing a "cheaper and much less hassle" free way of setting up and running your own limited company, even though the beleaguered and by now, suicidal labourer, didn't want one in the first place. This process required him to sign away many of his employment rights and to give an undertaking to work flexibly and to opt out of the EU 'Working Time Regulation' in order to get paid.

It seems nowadays that in Tory Britain one needs the skills of a Philadelphia lawyer in order to apply for the most menial of positions. Why a Labour council enagages in such shabby employment practices with  companies of this kind, beggars belief.  However, Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, has vowed to end such practices.  But with around 250 councils using 'Service Care' and other similar companies, it looks like he has his work cut out in reforming employment practices in many so-called labour councils.