SUBBING THE NIGHT AWAY 43

Rrsocirrt~ r;l. tn.rgcvni~nt

thci Giri*nwch Uiriviv+ty The increasing use of f reelancers

in publishing is not sustainable .wx~Industr.i.rl Rc4itions

Businc.ssSchm/

n 1979, Britain saw a govemment of the NewRightembarkonasetofpoliciesthat I emphasised the rolling back of the state,

freedom from the constraints of oqpnised

new pidure, the mall firm featured strongly, not only as a potential creator of jobs and wealth, but also as a symbol of a political messitge embracing thenew dynamic vitality

worth) But while the increase in the number of self-employed during the 1980s was taken as a key indicator of the successful develop- ment of the enterprise culture and ‘flexible’

labow, risk-taking and tax redudim. In this

of ‘enterprise Culture’. (Stanworth and Stan-

economy, detailed analysis points to something rather different.

Case studies show that many of the new self- employed have been pushed - b y d u s h n M t h e m h - bourmarket,mostlybyredun- dancy, or by employedmoves

outm-houseLarp?nunrbersof people among the self-

- b d O W ~ k p & ~ &

fmpbyed lack -,

The background Here we describe the background to the boom in self employed and focus on a case study of the publishing industry to get a better feel for what is really happening. The book publishing industry is one example of

all sectors. outsourcing which is becoming COIlUnon in

Defining the self-employed Official statistics on self-employment include

and small business owners with employees both the Selfsmployed without employees

“’IIte current situation does not appear

sustainable. The best fieelacets were

consistently reported to be those with several

years prm’ous experience gained

working in-house as employees’’

but who- businesses ~ n -

incorporated. The Inland Revenue and the Department

tests to separate the em- ployed from the self-em- ployed. Unless an individual can pass all three, self-em- ployed status is the likely re- S d t .

In additim, case law has been used to widen the defini- tion of self-employment (Fel-

ofsocialsecurityusethree

will never grow into businesses employing others, and are d l y disguised wagework- m, yet lack the statutcuy safeguards enjoyed

stead, 1992). Given these fa&, a rise in the numbersoftheself-employedcannotbyitself betakentomdicateagrowthoftheenterprise

bYemployees. culture.

1070 3535 ‘10 OlOO43t 05 512 00 0 1996 THE DRYDEN PRESS

44 NEW ECONOMY

Self-employment growth The 1980s and early 1990s witnessed substan- tial p w t h in the self-employed component of the national labour force, as offidally measured. This rise was as much as 52 pet cent during the period 1981-91. However, some of the growth was in the form of an explosion in the numbers of freelance ex- employees, who count in o f f id statistics as small businesses but are in fact self- employed individuals.

Of the approximately 3 million self-em- ployed in Britain, about two-thirds am people who do not employ.anyone else Most of them operate their 'bushed m or from their own home. The propartian of the selfenployed without employees grew from 61 per cent m 1981 to 69 per cent m 1990. Among the female self-employed, the pluprtim without employ- e e ~ m f r o m 6 5 % in 1981 to 72% in 1990.

lob-substitution It has generally been assumed by politicians, and many researchers, that the self-em- ployed without employees are at an early stage of growth, on their way to becoming small business owners. Any expansion in the self-employed workforce is assumed to have long-term positive effects on job-creation.

For many, however, there is little chance of such progression. Self-employment is often the only option for workers displaced from conventional employment. For them, being 'empowered' to take responsibility for their own future often means taking work on a freelance self-employed basis similar to that undertaken previously as an employee. Where this transfer occurs, official statistics re- cord job losses in the corporate sector, matched by job gains in the small business sector. An estimated 25 per cent of the self-employed workfom is composed of displaced employ- ees, rather than entrepreneurial individuals. It is job-substitution rather than job creation which is more common among this subsector of the national workforce.

Casualisation What is happening to many of the newly self-employed is part of a wider process of 'casualisation' which is changing the nature of the labour market. Casualisation implies insecure, short-term and irregular work, as- sociated with the flexible, peripheral, non- standard or atypical workforce and involving part-time, temporary, short-term contracts as well as self-employed workers.

This atypical workforce has grown since the early 198Os, both in the UK and in Europe, as a result of factors including global compe- tition, recession and the expansion of sectors where such work has been a 'tradition'.

Externalisation of work, substituting self- employed status for traditional employment, is a prime example of casualisation. It re- moves from the employer the obligation to provide sick pay, holidays and pensions, training and follow-up work. Because em- ployment protection legislation does not ap- ply to external workers, the risk of providing a flow of income is passed to the individual who never knows if the current piece of work will be the last. Mistakes result in not being offered repeat work. For the worker, casuali- sation means perpetual insecurity.

The UK book publishing industry A University of Westminster study of the UK book publishing industry surveyed 371 proofreaders, editors and indexers who were members of the Society of Freelance Editors and Proofreaders (SFEP), and camed out 40 follow-up interviews in 1992 and 1993. The book publishing industry has a tradition of using skilled and specialist freelances, many of them female, to supplement 'in-house' fa- cilities. But the evidence is that the use of freelance labour accelerated rapidly during the 1980s and early 199Os, swelling the army of self-employed people in the industry.

Like other sections of the media, UK book- publishing has undergone restructuring over the past decade in response to technological

SUBBING THE NIGHT AWAY 4s

The effects of casualisation

for discrete pieces of work meant that respon- sibility for obtaining a constant income

se l f smplop~ t and short-term COII~&S

shifted from the publishing house to the in-

or famine worknowG. dividual.Many~e!xperience!d'feast

W o r k i n g a t h onafdancebasiswas ~intarse.WOrkbilledfOrWaSthatIm- dertaken sitting at a desk or computer. Many ~sccludedfrrmrchargesheetsvisitsto toibets,timespent-*the*honeand thetakingof--h werefe!w,ifany,- * whidlpenneate

t i o n o f w ~ w ~ u i t y .

3ifeinawodingobfioe.Ikadlinesmusually t ight ;and~highqua l i tywasaamdi -

Pay for most freelances in book publishing was detemmed ' bythelabourmar~and, given the d m and the oversupply of la- bour, was in effect set by employers. Neither theNUJorthespEphasbeenabletomaintain any generally observed minimum rates. Hourly rates were bunched heavily around

for freelance 'homeworkers', it should be IP membered that the work wae highlyakiled and most freeIances in the industry were highly 9ualified: about 80 per cent have a

cent a postgraduate degree. One reason for the relatively low pay was the 'gendering' of these skills. Editing and pmfmding m classed as female ocmpatims, perceived as naturaltow~nenandth~devalued.

sity of their work reduced the number of horus they wem able to work, usually result- ing in a monthly mmme of about €1,000. Many freelances also complained of slow payment by their publishers, a problem they sharewithmysmallbusinefses.

Hourly rates of pay for freelances ap-

staff, which meant they were not being com- pensated for the lack of fringe benefits, or for the costs of using their own home as a work- place. Savings to publishers also resulted from reduced ofice rents and associated 0verheads.Freekncesreceivednodirectm- tributionfmnpubhherckn ' tsforpaidholi-

#10.AlthoIlghthismi&tappearreasanable

hi* educational gualification, and 25 per

Many freelances claimed the sheer mten-

pearedvery similar to thosepaid toin-house

36

days, sick leave, or re- tirement. Publishers surveyed did not usually have ‘family

would enable women

ment after starting a

majority of respon- dents made contribu- tions to a personal pension, few had taken out sickness or accident insurance..

friendly policies that

to return to employ-

family. Although tht

NEW ECONOMY

Independence Independence from stmngextemalcontrolhas longbeenseenasadefiningcharacteristicof the small business. Freelancg in our survey did feel at least a me- of independence, ex- pressed primarily as freedom from interfer- ence, and many d e m d to their oneperson operation as a business. “l have no boss and no subordinates,” said one. “I have total responsi- bility formy own output“ hterview responses also showed that fndances felt more autono- mous thanin-house staff.

Although the legal and economic status of freelances in book publishing would suggest that they could freely catract with a range of different clients, the reality was rather differ- ent. Typically, they were heavily reliant on a single client, sometimes their former em- ployer, for more than half their work, and on two clients for more than 80 per cent. This made them vulnerable to changes in the major clients’ demands, and to changes of in-house personnel, particularly commissioning edi- tors. It also weakened their bargaining posi- tion and left them little scope for independent growth and development.

In reality, the independence of freelances was limited. If they were working on more than one project at a time, they had to create the impression that they were working exclu- sively for one client alone. One said “I sup-

Illurtncion: David simmondr

pose I encourage every client to think they are my only client. They tend to assume that I have no one else and I don’t like them to think I’ve got other work on the go.” The autonomy of most respondents was chiefly manifest as a removal of direct supervision, limited control over working hours and where work was done.

About 10 per cent of respondents were less easy to distinguish from wage-workers. Their publishers actually provided training, paid for equipment and helped with running costs. These freelances had a closer ‘special’ rela- tionship with a single publisher, and yet re- mained excluded from all employment pro- tection measures.

The definition of self-employment covers ownership and control of the means of pro- duction, which can vary from the investment of considerable capital through to modest outlays such as the machinist’s sewing ma- chine or the artisan’s toolkit. In the case of book publishing, a fairly modest outlay for a home workstation included the costs of a computer, answerphone and printer as well as a telephone, with only a minority of freel- ances owning more sophisticated equipment, such as a facsimile machine (23 per cent) or a modem (6 per cent).

Disguised wage labour Our research into the book publishing indus-

SUBBING THE NIGHT AWAY 41

try strongly supports the conclusion that most freelanoe workers were carmaliged em- ployee~, rather than independent selfsm- played They had few of the advantages of being employed but neither did they enjoy the accepted advantages of being self-em- ployed. They were ‘disguised’ wage labour, with limited autonomy and Their position was little diffemlt fmm that of em- ployees, except that they did not enjoy the legislative safeguards that employees do. Most experienced poorer conditions than

Most freelances had ben ‘pushed’ mto

yondtheircontml,ratherthanattractedbythe advantages of self-emplayment, or by their entrepreneurial drive. The unemployment ‘push factor‘ in the p w t h of self-employ- ment is a more powerfdexphtim than t& en ’ ‘pullfadoimthiscase.

C i t u a t i o n in the ~ ~ - ~ ~ - ing industry suggests that the balance of pow& lies with the employers to bid down wages and dictate terms. The reeessh has a?!ated an excess of supply over demand, and it would seem thatfreelanceswiU,for the fore- seeable future, remain at a disadvantage.

equivalent employem.

selfemployment through ckcumstanoes be-

Long term dangers Developments such as the movement to- wards a self-employed peripheral workfozce witnessed in the book publishing industry may represent good news for the political Right. Individual contracts are the order of the day, the price of labour is not ‘artificially determined by any notions of collective stFength,andretributianisswiftiffrdanes fail to meet desired quality standards. However, the current situation does not

appear- * le.Thebestfreelanceswere cons~tlyr€!portedtobethosewithseveral years’ previous experience gained working

panies.Inmanycases,thefreelancesweredis-

mtly pmviding them with work. Aspiring

in-h- BS emplOyeeS with P u b W g c ~ m -

placed exemployees of the publisher cur-

freekurces without comparable training and experience fquently failed to get any work at all.

posed of a plentiful supply of ageing profes- sionals who learned their skills and gained experience and contacts in-house. Nearly two-&irds of our sample were aged 40 or over, and nearly c m x p r k were aged over 50. Thus, the mdustry is cumntly benefiting from a period when trahing investment ran atcansiderabyhigherlwels thanit doesnow.

ent an prior training and exphcem-house, andthisisclearlymuchreddordisappear

is likely to cause acrisis in the industry m the not too distant future.

This fredane w o r w is CurreIltlyCom-

A supply Of competenf freelances is depend-

ing. The failure toleproduce this labour for32

Structural change AU the indications are that ’non&andard’ workers willcontinue to beagiowinghture of the UK labour market. The public policy

of casuahd * employment cannot continue to betreatedasunimportantormarg.itu.L WiIl measuns develop that might am&*

sekmployedwoxkfcme? Wehaveseentfiepo- sition of psut-timershnpveas a Tesult ofthe

olds for employment profectiar, and despite

Etvapean Directives on ‘atypical’ work are

Eventually, it could be argued, employers

create levels of skill shortages likely to stmgthenthebargainingpositimofgtaups suchasthosecurrentlyworkingasfreelances.

storecloserlegalandeconamictieswiththeir peripheral workers. However, legal initia- tives direckd towards enmuraging a less lib- eral use by the courts of the term ‘self- employed’, might bring about this change rathersooner.

implicati~ofthisarethatthevariousfonns

ratethe- * dlifemtheexkmdkd

~ o f ~ ~ ~ t a b o ~ ~ ~

theoptoutfromthesocialQlslpter,,man~Ofthe

havinganimpactm~uK

CuXIent low mvestment rates in training will

This corzld rermlt in employgs seeking to re