Self-employed workers (Directive 2010/41/EU and some relevant provisions of the Recast Directive)
| Author | Frances Meenan |
| Pages | 63-66 |
63
8 Self-employed workers (Directive 2010/41/EU and some relevant
provisions of the Recast Directive)
8.1 General (legal) context
8.1.1 Surveys and reports on the specific difficulties o f self-employed workers
The key issue that self-employed persons have raised is that during the major recession
of some 10 years ago , the self-employed may have b een pers ons who employed other
staff and paid into the Social Insurance Fund on their behalf as their employer but that
when the crash came, the self-employed employer had no entitlements to Jobseeker’s
Benefit or Allowance. This anomaly is now being corrected.
8.1.2 Other issues
The self-employed have increasingly been in receipt of the various benefits and allowances
that the employed are entitled to, based on their pay-related social insurance
contributions. Of course, the k ey exclusion for women, for example, on maternity le ave,
is that they have no entitlement to employ somebody in their absence on leave.
8.1.3 Overview of national acts
A self-employed person who personally provides services or a partner in a firm falls within
the scope of the Employment Equality Acts 1998 to 2015.226
8.1.4 Political and societal debate and pending legislative proposals
Self-employed worke rs will be entitled t o Job seeker’s Benefit from year end 2019 . As a
major initiative, the self-employed are entitled to the vari ous optical a nd dental bene fits
that other insured workers have received for years.227
8.2 Implementation of Directive 2010/41/EU
The Employment Equality Act 1998 was amended by th e Equality Act 2004 so th at self-
employed persons came within the scope of the legislation as required by Article 14 of the
2010/41 are contained in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2014 which was signed into
law on 17 July 2014 . The Department of Social Protection provides a very useful outline
of entitlements to spouses or civil partners of the self-employed who are doing similar or
ancillary tasks. Such persons must earn over EUR 5 000 per annum and then they must
pay the relevant rate of Pay Related Social Insurance. They will then be entitled to
maternity/adoptive benefits and state pensions when they have the necessary
contributions. Payment commenced in 2014.
8.3 Personal scope
8.3.1 Scope
The term self-employment is not used in employm ent legislation but the te rm to
‘personally’ provide a service is mo re usually used. Such persons work under a contract
for services. It should be n oted that the self-employed technically fall within the scope of
the Employment Equality Acts 1998 to 2015.
226 Self-employed persons, by definition, are persons who do not have a contract of employment but are
working under a contract for services.
227
http://m.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Self-Employed-and-Jobseekers-Supports.aspx.
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