Shifting cultural and economic trends are building the case for an organised voice for independent workers in the UK, according to campaigners.

Joel Dullroy, co-author of the ‘Freelancers Manifesto’, raised the question in a blog post on the RSA website yesterday (see link below).

He points to estimates that freelancers will outnumber public sector workers by 2018 and argues that mainstream unions have been “caught off guard” by shifting work preferences.

He writes: “Most unions expressed a desire to simply subsume freelancers back into the ranks of the traditional workforce.

“As long as unions continue to misread freelancers as wayward workers, they will fail to have any relevance for this demographic.

“Although they may have deep concerns about their finances, their social safety net and their prospects in old age, survey after survey finds the majority of freelancers have no desire to return to a company job.”

Mr Dullroy quotes figures suggesting the number of UK freelancers has grown by 500,000 since 2008. Yet around 50 per cent of freelancers earn less than £12,000 a year.