CIS should be scrapped, says UCATT

UNION leaders are calling for the CIS tax system to be abolished.

The demand was made by UCATT chiefs at their national delegate conference in Perth this week following the publication of a report claiming that CIS subsidises the industry by £1.7bn a year.

The Evasion Economy has been written by Prof Mark Harvey, of Essex University and highlights the extent of bogus self-employment throughout construction.

UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie said: "CIS cannot be reformed, the system has failed. It is now up to the government to act decisively and rid Britain of bogus self-employment once and for all.

"This report reveals that not only is the Inland Revenue losing billions in a hidden subsidy to fat-cat construction bosses, but that hundreds of thousands of construction workers are denied even the most basic employment rights."

The report also found that firms using false self-employment are far more likely to hire migrant workers on CIS than go to the expense and effort of training British apprentices.

The report calls for the CIS system to be abolished and replaced by a simple single category of self-employment.

Ritchie said: "These reforms would both simplify the tax system and be more consistent for the accepted legal criteria of employment status."