ESRS S1-8 Non-Employee Workers

What ESRS S1-8 requires and why it matters

ESRS S1-8 requires companies to disclose: the total number of non-employee workers whose work is controlled by the organisation; the most common types of non-employee workers and their relationship to the organisation; and significant variations in the number of non-employees during the reporting period.

Non-employees in scope: workers provided by staffing agencies where the agency is the legal employer but the company directs the work; independent contractors and self-employed workers engaged for specific tasks; workers from outsourced service providers who work predominantly at company sites and under company direction; and platform and gig workers where the company is the primary work-giver.

Non-employees excluded from scope: independent contractors who work entirely from their own premises using their own equipment without company direction (genuinely independent); workers of suppliers who manufacture goods at their own facilities; and subcontractors who work on projects under their own project management.

Why this matters: In many industries, non-employees represent a significant portion of actual working capacity — sometimes exceeding the employee headcount. A construction company might have 500 employees but 2,000 subcontractor workers on its sites. A technology company might have 1,000 employees and 400 IT contractors. Reporting only employees gives an incomplete picture of the organisation's workforce and labour practices.

The safety implication: ESRS S1-14 health and safety metrics must cover supervised workers — including non-employees working under company supervision. Knowing the non-employee workforce size is essential for calculating accurate injury rates.

Building a non-employee worker registry

The primary practical challenge of ESRS S1-8 is data collection — most HRIS systems track employees only, and non-employee workers are managed through procurement, legal, or project management systems that were not designed for workforce counting.

For agency workers: your staffing agency supplier invoices typically specify the number of agency workers and their hours. Request an annual summary from each agency specifying peak headcount, average headcount, and total worker-weeks supplied during the year.

For independent contractors: accounts payable can identify all individuals paid as contractors (not through payroll). Filter for contractors working on-site or under company direction — those are likely S1-8 scope. Exclude consultants and professional service providers working independently.

For outsourced service workers: facilities management, security, catering, and IT helpdesk workers provided by third-party service companies often work exclusively on company premises under company management direction. Request headcount data from your service providers for workers permanently assigned to your locations.

Establishing a contractor registry: For ongoing compliance, create a non-employee worker registry as a joint project between HR, procurement, and legal. The registry should capture: worker name or ID (for counting purposes); contracting company or self-employed status; work location; type of work performed; start and end dates; and whether work is performed under company supervision (determining S1-8 scope).

For the first ESRS S1-8 disclosure: where a complete registry does not yet exist, make a good-faith estimate from available data sources — agency invoices, procurement spend data, site access records — and disclose the estimation methodology. Commit to improving data quality in subsequent years.

Types of work performed — the qualitative disclosure

ESRS S1-8 requires not just a headcount of non-employees but also a description of the types of work they perform. This qualitative disclosure provides context for understanding why the company uses non-employees and what their working relationship is.

Types of work categories for disclosure: Technology and IT services (software development, systems administration, IT support — common in technology-intensive businesses); Professional services (legal, consulting, finance — typically project-based, genuinely independent); Facilities and operations (building maintenance, security, cleaning — often agency workers under direct supervision); Production and manufacturing (assembly, packaging, quality control — often seasonal or surge capacity agency workers); Delivery and logistics (last-mile delivery, driving — complex classification where gig economy models raise employment status questions).

For the disclosure narrative: describe the main categories of non-employee work, the typical contractual relationship (agency, self-employed, service provider), and the principal reason for using non-employees rather than employees in each category (flexibility, specialist skills, seasonal variation, cost).

Gig economy workers: Companies with significant gig economy workforce exposure — delivery platforms, ride-sharing, creative marketplaces — face the most complex S1-8 disclosure. Worker classification (employee vs independent contractor) is legally contested in many jurisdictions. Disclose the company's position on classification, any ongoing legal proceedings, and the number of gig workers on the basis of the company's current classification. Assurers will note material classification disputes as a risk disclosure item.

Frequently asked questions