"The
self-employed is one who contracts to perform a specific job, furnishing his or her own assistants and executing the work in accordance with either his or her own ideas or a plan previously given to him or her by the person for whom the work is done, without being subject to orders of the latter on details of the work."
(Anglim, C.T.,
Labour, Employment and the Law, A Dictionary, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1997)
"It is important to determine whether a worker is an employee or a
self-employed individual. Employment status directly affects a person's entitlement to Employment Insurance (EI) benefits. Employment status can also have an impact on how a worker is treated under other legislations such as the
Canada Pension Plan, the
Employment Insurance Act, and the
Income Tax Act."
(Canada Revenue Agency,
Employee or Self-Employed?, visited 2010-08-06)
"The
self-employed are generally recognised as being concentrated in a number of occupations: farmers, professionals, shopkeepers, helper-spouses and construction workers. There is thus a wide range of categories of
self-employed persons, and there are significant differences among them; e.g. between liberal professionals, workers in hotels and restaurants, and female helper-spouses."
(European Industrial Relations Dictionary,
Self-Employed Person, visited 2009-08-25)
"For employers, using self-employed, freelance or sub-contract work allows them to avoid many of the employment regulations that apply to ‘employees' (e.g.: sick leave, maternity leave, unfair dismissals, and so on.) This facilitates a more flexible and less costly form of labour, which is more easily attuned to market forces and changes in supply and demand. Thus, the
self-employed have very little access to worker protection legislation/employment rights and are treated by the employer as a business which is sub-contracted to do a fixed task or work for a fixed period. In short, they do not enjoy the same employment status rights as workers classified as employees."
(Dobbins, T.,
European Industrial Relations Dictionary [Eurofound], visited 2009-08-27)
There is no universally accepted definition of the
self-employed worker. Different countries, laws and other sources define it in different ways. This being the case, the numerous terms, such as "
self-employed worker," "
self-employed," "
independent worker," "
free-lance," "
free-lancer"
and
"
own-account worker"
do not always have precisely the same meaning; however, there is no real consensus on the differences that exist between them. In Quebec, "
self-employed worker" is the term most often used.
"In the 1980s and 1990s there was a change in employment relations. In most countries, the full-time job with a permanent contract became less important. On the other hand, there was an increase in part-time jobs, in non-permanent jobs and in self-employment. Work organisation has been changing very rapidly and employment relations have become more flexible."
(European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions,
Employment Status and Working Conditions, visited 2009-08-19)