The fair work agency: what workers need
The long-awaited single body to deal with employment law abuses is launching this month. But will it deliver the change workers demand?
It is extremely difficult to calculate the true cost of labour exploitation in the UK – both overall and within a sector. This is in part due to the barriers for workers to come forward and report issues, as well as the extended lack of resources given to monitoring and investigations.
The Fair Work Agency, a single body that will combine powers on enforcing minimum wage payments, holiday pay and modern slavery, among others, launches on 7 April. We have long called for a single robust access point that provides meaningful remedy for workers, and robustly clamps down on employers’ abusive practices.
UK workers often struggle to enforce their rights due to a reactive system, high legal costs, and complex tribunal processes. Many—especially vulnerable workers, those on precarious contracts and those with language issues —fear speaking out. Key barriers include a reliance on workers to report abuses as opposed to pro-active monitoring and investigations, financial and legal hurdles, loopholes in corporate structures, gaps in worker protections, and limited regulatory powers. Visa dependence can trap migrant workers with abusive employers, while fear of deportation, job loss, or blacklisting discourages complaints. High legal costs and complex tribunal processes further limit access to justice.
While some of the proposed reforms in the Employment Rights Bill will address these issues by strengthening protections, the FWA needs to ensure that workers can obtain timely and transparent remedy.
What workers say
Our new policy briefing gives a brief overview of the key areas the FWA needs to address, and importantly highlights testimony from current and former garment workers in Leicester about their experiences with labour violations.
Tejal, female, garment worker
“At the moment we don’t know how to raise our concerns to higher authorities, we don’t know who is in charge above our boss if he treats us wrong. I feel there should be an easy way where we can put our issues forward for someone to look in and deal, maybe it is just confusion we want to clear or understand things better.“
Remedy for all workers, regulation for bad employers
While the government appears committed to improving worker protections and strengthening labour enforcement, it must ensure workers – all workers – are able to have access to remedy without fear of reprisal. This includes ensuring that workers are supported in making their case, even when they may not have access to details such as payslips. The government must also take on the extensive evidence of the enforcement gap – as a result of worker reluctance and lack of resourcing.
Abuses in the UK textile sector must be seen within a wider landscape of laws and business practices that are clearly failing to provide adequate protections to garment workers across the UK. For too long there has been a lack of government oversight on business practice in this sector to drive meaningful change. The government must take action to curb the abusive business practices of brands and urgently assess the need for mandatory due diligence.