Do we really need another category of worker?

Deliveroo has called for the Government to overhaul workers’ rights legislation to allow it to give its delivery riders benefits without the conditions that would be attached if they are employees or workers.

According to the report, it wants ministers to create a new category of working that would let the company give riders benefits without forcing it to categorise them as workers, which would mean offering them pre-arranged shifts instead of allowing them to choose jobs as they please.

This does not make sense.  The issue of determining an individual's status is already complicated enough without throwing another type of working arrangement into the mix.  

Plus there is already nothing to stop businesses employing individuals on flexible or casual contracts. It is therefore difficult to see what Deliveroo are driving at (if you ignore the pun) with this suggestion.  If they wish to pay their casual staff benefits such as holiday pay, NMW etc, all they have to do is to treat them like the workers they probably already are.

The takeaway app said that companies are currently forced to choose between offering workers flexible work and entitlements such as sick pay and maternity leave because the law had not been “updated” to reflect new ways of working.”