New Forms of Work: How the workplace is changing and what the left should do about it

The nature of work in Britain is changing.

Increasing numbers of workers are turning to flexible working and freelancing in a labour market which is unable to support as many full-time, traditional employees as it was before the financial crash in 2008.

But this trend is not just driven by economic necessity – flexible work and freelancing is increasingly attractive as people seek to gain greater control over their working lives, achieve better work-life balance or take opportunities to be entrepreneurial.

New Forms of Work investigates how an increasingly flexible labour market can deliver not only growth but also promote a fairer society. What is the place of flexible working and freelancing in a high wage, high skill economy? How does the workforce need to adapt to the changing labour market and what does this mean for the role of trade unions? Can the left accommodate freelancing and flexible working as part of wider pro-business agenda that emphasises entrepreneurship, whilst maintaining its core mission to protect the rights of working people?