Vulnerable Worker Enforcement Forum – final report

Vulnerable Worker Enforcement Forum – Final report and Government Conclusions

Membership of the Vulnerable Worker Enforcement Forum comprised the TUC and other unions, government enforcement bodies, Citizens Advice and business representatives.

The Forum has discussed the nature and extent of employment rights abuses being encountered by vulnerable workers, including migrants. It has looked at the barriers to workers taking action to assert or to enforce those rights, including a lack of awareness of rights. The Forum has also looked at migrant worker vulnerability and the involvement of advisers and other third parties in advising workers and reporting suspicions of abuse.

Breaches of employment rights highlighted by Forum members included:

• No written terms of agreement
• Workers being paid below the minimum wage, and not being paid for all the hours worked
• Unauthorised deductions being made from waages
• Wages and holiday pay owed not being paid after leaving a job
• Inadequate rest breaks being given
• Excessive hours
• Workers not being provided with safety equipment
• The provision of sub-standard “tied” accommodation

The report concludes that Vulnerable workers (and those who are on the verge of entering potentially vulnerable employment) need to have an awareness of their employment rights to know when they are being abused. They need to know what to do when they suspect that these rights are being breached and they need to be encouraged to complain about their employer where they have just cause.

To address these issues, government will:

• Run a significant, sustained campaign with delivery partners to raise awareness of basic employment rights and encourage the reporting of abuses. The campaign will start this year.
• Key elements of the campaign will be the promotion of a single enforcement helpline, an enhanced basic rights section on www.direct.gov.uk , significantly more publicity for the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, publicity for the new national minimum wage penalties and “fair arrears” provisions (being legislated on through the current Employment Bill), and more awareness-raising work with migrant workers – both here in the UK and in those countries from which most workers come.
• The campaign will also seek to address worker fears of reporting abuses by stressing the confidentiality of the complaints process, and existing whistleblower protections. It will draw on experience and evaluation of the NMW campaign run over the last year.
• Look at the case for building on the work undertaken by the Vulnerable Worker pilot in Birmingham which has been providing employment rights awareness training to year 10 pupils in schools in Birmingham with high proportions of early leavers.
• Look at the possibilities for incorporating basic employment rights training in  ‘Welfare to work’ programmes, building on trials undertaken as part of BERR’s vulnerable worker pilots.

For full information and to download the report, go the BERR website