Like many people working in the gig economy, Tracey Sheppard would love a more secure job.

The 41-year-old from Chelmsford in Essex juggles three part-time cleaning jobs to make ends meet – but dreams of retraining as a classroom assistant.



Sadly, the low wages and insecure work patterns she endures make it impossible to save enough to pursue a new career.



As Tracey explains: “I’ve done cleaning jobs where you never know what you are going to get paid. I had one job where they said it’s £13 per hour but I came out with £7/£8 per hour because of admin and agency fees.

“There’s no sick pay, no benefits and you don’t have a contract, so there are no guarantees.

(Image: BBC)

“I’ve had jobs that have lasted a day, jobs that have lasted a week.

“I’d like to retrain but getting the money together is impossible.”

The mum-of-two is one of an estimated 700,000 people working as cleaners in the UK, many of them via an agency or outsourcing company, including many migrant workers.

Next month (November 1) a new film from director Ken Loach highlights the problems faced by gig economy workers like Tracey.

Created by the team behind, I, Daniel Blake, it shows a family buckling under the pressure of long shifts and ‘self-employment’.



Cleaner Andrea Ruskin, 32, has experienced all this. She lives in Mansfield, Notts, with her two children and recently set up her own company to leave the gig economy behind.



“Now I am actually self-employed,” she says. “In the past I was told I was but I wasn’t – I was just working without benefits.

“We had to invoice rather than get a payslip, but they still told us where to be and when.

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“You had to use your own transport and didn’t get paid for travel time. There was no sick pay – if you were ill you took it as holiday.”



One of those campaigning for better terms for gig economy workers, including cleaners, is the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB).



As caseworker Jordi Lopez-Botey explains: “The system itself needs to be challenged. Outsourcing means workers struggle to know who is accountable, who they need to speak to when things go wrong.



“Rights can be eroded very quickly.”

New film exposes grim work reality

From the team that brought you I, Daniel Blake comes Sorry We Missed You, a powerful exploration of the contemporary world of work.

In the fim, released in cinemas November 1, overworked contract nurse Abbie (Debbie Honeywood) cares for disabled and elderly people, often at the expense of tucking in her own children at night.

This raw tale shines a light on the injustice suffered by thousands of workers facing similar conditions, in the hope of change.