Construction union UCATT is calling for an urgent investigation into the actions of certain payroll companies which, it says, are costing the Inland Revenue millions in lost National Insurance contributions and denying workers even the most basic employment rights.

The move follows a Daily Mirror investigation which exposed how payroll companies enable companies and employment agencies to officially register workers as self-employed, when in reality they are employees.

The union has written to both the Revenue and David Gauke MP the Exchequer Secretary who has responsibility for tax avoidance demanding an urgent investigation into the practices of payroll companies and emphasising that this is further evidence of the extremely high levels of false self-employment in the construction industry.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, says: “There has been a huge growth in payroll companies. These companies do not perform construction work, nor do they hire labour to companies, their sole reason for existence is to enable companies to deny workers basic employment rights whilst avoiding paying national insurance contributions.

“The government and the Revenue need to intervene to end these practices once and for all.”