The Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) regulates those who supply labour or use workers to provide services in agriculture, forestry, horticulture, shellfish gathering and food processing and packaging. Its aim is to protect vulnerable and exploited workers by setting licensing standards that labour providers in these sectors (including agencies or umbrella companies) must meet. From April 2017, the GLAA was given a wider remit to tackle labour abuse across all aspects of the labour market, in addition to its licensing scheme.

Their website provides useful information on workers’ rights.

To make a complaint to the GLAA about an agency or umbrella company operating in their sector you can use their online reporting form.

JobsAware defines the “UK Gig Economy” as the area of the Labour Market in the UK which does not involve permanently employed workers; including but not limited to temporary agency workers, self-employed contractors and those who work flexibly for an organisation which is not necessarily their employer.

Many people earn extra cash by using one of the many available online platforms to, for example, offer rides, run errands and make deliveries.

For some guidance on your tax and employment law status if you work in this way, including on registering for self-assessment, see LITRG’s website.

Note, most platform workers are currently treated as self-employed for both tax and employment law purposes, however there have recently been a few cases that have found some platform workers were ‘workers’ rather than ‘self-employed’ for employment law purposes because the control that they were under by the platform meant they weren’t in business on their own account (e.g. in the Uber case, where the drivers had their route and fares set for them – for more information see LITRG’s article.)

The UK government website can be found here. It brings together public information in one place. It covers the whole of the UK, although you may find NI Direct (www.nidirect.gov.uk) useful if you live in Northern Ireland;

the Scottish Government website (www.gov.scot) useful if you live in Scotland; and https://gov.wales useful, if you live in Wales.