Britain’s new employment rights watchdog risks becoming another toothless regulator after ministers asked the Fair Work Agency (FWA) to reduce regulatory burdens on businesses, unions and legal experts have warned.
The inspectorate’s incoming chair Matthew Taylor included “thought leadership” and “reducing regulatory burdens” among the five priorities the Department of Business and Trade (DBT) had laid out for it in its first year.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said that the priorities showed the agency, one of the cornerstones of the Employment Rights Act, was “in danger of being a dead duck before it even begins.”
She said:
For too long, workers have borne the brunt of disreputable employers who have had carte blanche.
The government needs to urgently ensure that the FWA focuses its attention on bringing rogue bosses to heel rather than seeking ways to allow dodgy companies to continue bad behaviour.
A report by the Institute for Employment Rights (IER) pointed out a failure to ring-fence resources around the FWA’s expanded remit.
It urged the government to introduce a robust inspection regime without advance warning to employers and establish a “credible” threat of prosecution for non-compliance, with trade unions playing a key part and having the ability to bring cases to court.
Report co-author, University of Glasgow professor of Labour Law Ruth Dukes said:
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