-
Union body criticises ministers for not bringing
forward immediate protections
-
New workers’ rights announcement is “heavy on spin, but
light on action”
Commenting on today’s (Tuesday) government announcement of a new
workers’ rights watchdog, TUC General Secretary Frances
O’Grady said:
“Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect at
work.
“But years of underinvestment have left our enforcement system in
crisis and millions of workers vulnerable to exploitation.
“Today’s announcement is heavy on spin, but light on action.
“Rather than clamping down on bad bosses now, the government is
today making an announcement with no plan to legislate to make it
happen – and no new funding either.
“Last month ministers failed to announce the long-promised
employment bill in the Queen’s Speech. And they have failed to
appoint a new director of labour enforcement.
“This pandemic has brutally exposed the terrible working
conditions and insecurity many people in Britain face. This
announcement will do little to change that.”
Cuts to health and safety enforcement
Not one single employer has been fined and prosecuted for putting
staff at risk during the pandemic.
The TUC is calling for the government to reverse cuts of the past
decade to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which it says
left Britain “under-prepared and vulnerable” to the pandemic.
The last ten years has seen real term cuts of 50 per cent to the
HSE budget, on top of local authority budgets being slashed.
There has also been a dramatic decline in inspections. There were
27 per cent fewer HSE inspections carried out in the UK in 2019
than 2011, amounting to a fall of over 5,700 a year.
Lack of protections
The TUC says that for too many workers, basic workplace rights
like the national minimum wage, holiday pay and contracted
working hours are illusory because there is no effective
enforcement.
The latest pre-pandemic data shows that nearly half a million workers are paid less than the national minimum wage,
and nearly two million employees miss out on holiday pay.
Agency workers, who are often on
zero-hours contracts, are particularly vulnerable to their rights
being abused. Many have been working in key frontline jobs
through the coronavirus crisis, such as in care homes or at
testing centres.
The union body says that the government should have prioritised
maintaining inspections in a safe manner given the way the
pandemic has brutally exposed the
terrible working conditions, insecurity and low pay many key
workers face.
The TUC adds that the government has rowed back on its workers’
rights and enforcement promises. The union body points to “a
litany of failures” including the failure to appoint a new
Director of Labour Market Enforcement, take any action on its
planned single enforcement agency, and to bring forward an
employment bill in the Queen’s Speech to boost labour rights.
UK-EU deal breach
The International Labour Organisation
(ILO) benchmark for inspectors, which it recommends all countries
meet, is for countries to guarantee one inspector per 10,000
workers. From the latest publicly available data, the UK would
need an additional 1,797 labour market inspectors to meet this
benchmark.
The TUC says that there are simply not
enough inspectors to do the work required. For example, there are
roughly 40,000 employment agencies operating in the UK, but just
19 EAS inspectors.
The TUC has warned that as a result of
this lack of inspectors, the UK is potentially breaching the
UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The agreement stipulates
that each party must have an effective system of domestic
enforcement and labour inspections in accordance with its
international commitments.
The union body says the government
must provide enforcement bodies with “long-term, sustained
funding” so they can recruit and train proper workplace
inspectors, inspect more workplaces, and prosecute bad bosses who
don’t keep their workers safe.
