If you are a regular reader of the UC Blog then you will be well aware of the BBC freelance saga. We talk about it all the time.
Basically, what happened is BBC employees were classified as “freelance” to save money on tax, which led to HMRC investigating and leaving many of the BBC Stars with hefty fines and their reputations in tatters.
This led to MPs to setup a committee…called The Public Accounts Committee…Also known as PAC, and what they did was launch an inquiry into this freelance mess.
Well, PAC have just released their report, and guess what? That report has landed here on my desk at the UC HQ.
You know, I haven’t read one of these reports for a while, and it makes a nice change because it seems that all I get these days is letters and emails from people asking about Umbrellas.
Yes ok, I do realise it is April, which means we are now in the peak of Umbrella buying, but why oh why can’t the UK public just understand that we DO NOT SELL UMBRELLAS!!
I’m really starting to think that a name change could be on the horizon to stop all of these letters and emails asking about buying umbrellas.
Anyway, back to the story and so I’m reading through this report from PAC and what I’m finding is words such as “muddled” and “chaotic.” These are words that PAC are using to describe the BBC.
In other words, they are pointing the finger of blame firmly at the BBC about this whole freelance mess, and in their opinion it should be the BBC who are held accountable.
More specifically, the report goes on to drone on about something called Public Service Companies AKA PSC, which the BBC use to give their employees self employed status.
According to BBC employees they were forced into a PSC against their will, although the BBC are claiming that it was the employees who willingly went into the PSC and it should them who are held accountable.
It was at this point that I could take no more, and just like all of those other reports which land on my desk here at Umbrella Companies, this one met the very same fate.
So I picked it up…and then slammed it directly into my bin.
“Good riddance to bad rubbish,” is what I said when I slammed it into the bin, and I meant it.
