They have been called the ‘forgotten middle’. They are the self-employed and in particular those on lower incomes, often called ‘precariat’ workers. They need to come together to gain recognition of their both status and their contribution. If they can gain recognition, even informally within their own ranks, then they organise. If they can organise themselves then it is only a short step to being able to cooperate together. Then they can mutually support each other and draw strength both economically together. We call it the R-O-C-k. Recognition, Organise, Co-operate and knowledge. That is the plan, and was the clarion call for a special conference held last week. It was a collaborative event held at the Trade Union Congress’s Congress House in London, that was organised by Co-operatives UK. It brought together trade unionist, co-operative activists, freelancing groups and representations and other professional bodies to discuss how institutions, in particular a mutual, could be developed and built to support the growing army of self-employed workers in the UK.

The background is that the number of self-employed workers has risen to an all-time high of 4.6 million workers. That is a rise of some five in 10 new jobs are being created by those going into business for themselves. That is a rise of some 732,000 since 2008. In comparison permanent jobs rose by 339,000. It is a 40 per cent rise since 2000. (Also the number of self-employed people over 65 has more than doubled in the past five years to reach almost half a million, though that probably tells us more about the pensions crisis.)

According to the RSA, the number of self-employed will overtake those in the public sector by 2018. Some of these jobs are by the affluent in our society, but since 2008 according to the ONS, average earnings from self-employment has dropped from £15,000 to £10,400 – a median weekly income of £207. – less than half that of employees. Couple this with the fact that the self-employed also experience a lack of social protection compared to those in traditional employment and specifically in relation to a lack of sick pay, paid maternity leave, holiday pay and redundancy. These are the precariat self-employed – many of these are workers enjoy almost none of the benefits won by organised labour during the 20^th century and will not be compensated for it by higher pay. Instead they face the prospect of a life of unstable labour and unstable living. The question for trade unionists, co-operators and others was – how can this be mitigated?

At this special conference, which was formally opened by Ed Mayo of Co-operatives UK, delegates discussed the needs of the precariat self-employed and how these can be answered by the co-operative and trade union movement working together. On one side, to deliver protections and support for rights at work and, on the other, to help them collaborate and cooperate with each other. Powerful examples of this were provided by delegates as diverse as IT workers, musicians, child psychologists, translators and pharmacists. To paraphrase the sentiment is to say that Britain became a powerful and prosperous nation because workers came together to build their institutions and today as the employment market is changing we need to do it again.

To succeed we need to separate out from the self-employed market those bogusly self-employed and who are exploited by unscrupulous employers, just as we need to separate out those masquerading as self-employed to avoid tax. Once that is done we can focus on helping those genuinely working as self-employed. We also need to set aside a tendency, by some, to sneer at the self-employed as ‘lifestyle’ workers. There are no frappuccinos for the precariat self-employed, just a hard grind.

Yet, the message, reiterated by many of the precariat, is that they do not want sympathy or to be treated as victims, they want respect. They don’t want rescuing, they want to be empowered and supported. With these virtues in hand they are not going to wait for a government to make the changes that they need, just as they have not waited for people to give them jobs. Instead they want to move on and put their faith not in politicians but in themselves. Elaine Jones from Women in informal employment and global organising talked about their three V’s – having Visibility through diversity, have a Voice through self-organising and having Validity beyond that (as advocates for the workers) and Values (co-operation, knowledge). This can be achieved and translates well to say they will be working to be recognised, to organise and to co-operate, whether by adapting existing or creating new institutions.

Karin Christiansen, general secretary of the Co-operative party said that the big democratic institutions on our society – the trade unions, the co-operatives and political parties – need to step and engage with the precariat and other self-employed groups. Elsewhere it was noted that the trade unions had once consciously chosen not to strategically recruit or organise around agency and temporary workers. This time round they need to consciously do so. The call from the conference was for the best of trade union and co-operatives movements to be combined with social finance and other groups to build a platform for the self-employed and especially precariat workers. This was a view supported by trade unionists and co-operators and others in attendance, and that this should be a goal of the labour movement at large to make this happen. If they succeed we will all have a stronger trade union movement, a stronger co-operative movement and stronger and better Britain.

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Philip Ross is a trade unionist, a co-operator and a former freelancer. He is also a member of Labour Finance Industry Group and author of their report The Freelancing Agenda. Conference was a part of the Precariat Research Project: Mutual and Co-operative Solutions for the Self-employed” by Co-operatives UK. Contact [email protected] for further details. Storify Twitter feed of the event can be found here.

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Photo: Philip Taylor