Breaking free from labour laws

Labour Q&A with Terry Bell

Fin24 user Vernon E thinks mechanisation or treating an employee as a business within a business is the answer breaking the chains of labour laws. He writes:

My thought on all these labour laws is that it is beginning to hurt the small businesses and it is going to put a huge restraint on employing staff.

In other words, can't we rather put a "machine" in a person's place - (that, I think, is beginning to go through the minds of business owners).

Now here is my question: Can't an employer before he wants to employ someone in a position, get this person to register a business and run his/her business "inside your business"? For example, the secretary does a job for the boss, invoices the boss every month for work done i.e. per hour, per day etc.‎, pays her own tax, UIF, not at work - her problem, off sick - her problem, etc.

Is their any law restricting a business from doing this?

Terry Bell responds:

Hi Vernon,

Any employer who could replace a worker (more usually several workers) with a machine and so lower costs, would do so. But machines and humans are not simply interchangeable.  

What is happening in this age of the micro processor is that machines, operated by one or two people and perhaps maintained by one or two more, are replacing hundreds of workers, doing the same work at a fraction of the cost. Car plants are perhaps the most obvious example.

Your idea about businesses inside businesses is non-standard/atypical or contract labour that has the effect of driving down wages (and, of course, costs to the ultimate employer).  

So yes, the law frowns on this and has moved against it. The unions, as protectors of the wages and conditions of those who sell their labour, are wholly opposed.

* Add your voice or just drop Terry a labour question. Follow Terry on twitter @telbelsa.

Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on Fin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.