British companies are skimping on pay and time off for at least 1 million workers, short changing some of the poorest people in society by £255 million ($318 million), the Resolution Foundation said.
(Bloomberg) — British companies are skimping on pay and time off for at least 1 million workers, short changing some of the poorest people in society by £255 million ($318 million), the Resolution Foundation said.
The research group said “too many” employers were flouting labor laws, leaving 400,000 workers receiving less than the minimum wage and 900,000 without the holiday they’re legally entitled to. In a report titled “Enforce for Good,” the group called on government to step up its oversight to bring companies into compliance.
The figures add to evidence that the UK economy relies on low-paid workers for too many jobs, holding back productivity and the potential growth rate of the economy. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has said it wants to reverse those trends, creating more high-skill and high-pay jobs. For the moment, Resolution said officials are too lax with fines and leave too much onus on the worker to pursue cases of inadequate pay in complex employment tribunal processes.
“A minimum wage, paid holiday from day one, safe working conditions and non-discrimination in the workplace are all basic standards that workers are entitled to in the UK today,” Lindsay Judge, research director of the said the Resolution Foundation, said in a report released Tuesday.
“But these rights are not worth the paper they are written on if non-compliant employers are not identified and required to make good any wrongs that they do,” he said. “Britain’s fragmented and weak system of enforcing labor market rights is costing workers billions a year and doing too little to prevent good firms being undercut.”
The Resolution Foundation wants to see a single enforcement body to cover all workers’ rights, except those covered by the Health and Safety Executive and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.
It is also calling for a new “super-complaint” process, which would allow workers and business representatives to raise systematic violations with that enforcement body.
The number of labor market inspectors should be doubled, the Foundation added. The UK currently has just 0.29 per 10,000 workers, ranking it 27 out of 33 comparable countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The foundation said fines should be doled out more frequently, since no penalties are levied in 41% of cases where workers are underpaid. The size of that penalty should also be increased from the amount of the arrears to four-times the amount.
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