This week the Government published its response to the consultation on tackling labour market exploitation. It plans to give new powers to authorities to enforce basic work rights and it promises a new cross-government approach to enforcement. The BIS Secretary of State, Sajid Javid, says the reforms “will leave no place to hide for those…
The story of 15-year-old Jay El-Leboudy is a touching tale of a young man juggling part-time work alongside his school studies in order to buy his family Christmas presents. Except that’s not how the story ends. Because whilst Jay thought his ten weeks of work would be appropriately rewarded, his employer at the Londis store…
The health and well-being of employees is a fundamental right for all European citizens. While there has been considerable progress in terms of protection of workers in difficult and hazardous roles, occupational safety risks are still in existence. A report published this week by the European Parliament revealed that across Europe 4,000 workers each year…
Politicians and policy makers talk a lot about the UK’s poor productivity record, with output per hour still below pre-crisis levels and well behind France, Germany and the USA. Narrowing the productivity gap with our competitors is worth a staggering £21,000 per year for every household in the UK. Boosting productivity growth (in both the…
Are LGB and T people more likely to be bullied? The evidence is clear but seems to contradict studies of changing social attitudes. The figures for bullying on grounds of sexuality or gender identity are grim and they always have been. For decades the routine bullying and harassment faced by workers who are lesbian, gay…
No. In fact, the latest figures suggest they’ve never been so uncommon. Being able to withdraw your labour is an essential human right, which is why Conservative ministers are usually careful to deny that the Trade Union Bill is an attack on the right to strike. But some of the Bill’s supporters are not very…
New figures indicate that 1,669,000 employees are missing out on their minimum legal entitlement to paid holidays. That’s an average of 6.4% of workers not taking up their legal rights. But this problem isn’t uniform across the UK, nor across all sectors, as you can see below. Missed holidays vary hugely by sector. Over 35%…
The ONS has today published a new report on industrial disputes. This confirms that they are at a historically low level. Ironically this comes one day after the government published plans to legislate to squeeze strikes. In fact, in the current decade less than a tenth as many days are being lost to stoppages as were in the 1980s. Indeed,…
Good reputations are hard to build and all too easy to lose. Of course business isn’t the only institution in Britain facing a crisis of trust. But unlike others, business can end up paying a high price in lost profit, productivity and jobs. Unions argue that no one has a greater interest in the success of…
David Cameron is launching a new election policy today, giving everyone working in a firm over 250 employees and all public sector workers, the right to three days’ extra paid leave every year to do voluntary work. He has described the pledge, which covers half the UK workforce as the “clearest demonstration of the Big…