Page 441 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS320 Michael Frosch
The first track requires the operationalization of a boundary between own-
account workers in household market enterprises and dependent contractors.
Employers and owner-operators of incorporated enterprises are by definition
not dependent contractors. The boundary therefore needs to be established
for those that have identified themselves as being self-employed and have
responded that they do not have an incorporated enterprise nor do they have
any employees. Different operational criteria such as having a dominant client
that exercises operational control, dependency on another economic entity
that sets the price for the products or services produced, and sharing profits
with a third party have been tested and the results published (ILO, 2018d). The
different tests have contributed to important insights regarding the first track
approach, but more work is needed before a clear recommendation can be
made regarding how this boundary should be operationalised.
The second track requires the operationalization of a boundary
between employees that are not paid for time worked and dependent
contractors. The conceptual boundary that distinguishes the two groups is
whether there is a commercial agreement or an agreement of employment.
The proposed operationalization of this boundary uses criteria concerning
whether the perceived employer is responsible for withholding income tax or
for arranging social insurance or not. If this is a responsibility of the employer
(independently of whether the employer de facto fulfils the responsibility or
not) then this indicates that there is an employer–employee relationship and
the worker is defined as an employee. However, if this is a responsibility of a
respondent who has initially self-identified as an employee, then this indicates
a commercial relationship and the respondent is defined as a dependent
contractor. The second track has been tested to a lesser extent but according
to the limited findings, the approach seems promising (ILO, 2018d). The
operationalization might nonetheless be problematic in countries with a high
share of informality. In such countries, the proposal is to operationalise the
boundary on the basis of actual contributions of social insurance in
combination with other information such as place of work.

4. Conclusion
The labour force survey has been an important data source for collecting
statistics by status in employment and will continue to be well suited to collect
this information as now defined in ICSE-18. The proposed measurement
approach is built around a self-identification module, which for most countries
is the current approach to identify the ICSE-93 status. It would therefore be
relatively easy to integrate the approach in most LFS. The different modules in
a LFS would typically target the main job but could also be used in relation to
secondary jobs. The modular approach creates a flexible structure that allows
countries to adapt it to the structure of their specific survey as well as open up

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