At least 14% of UK workers have experienced a ‘clear violation’ of their basic employment rights in the past two years, a major academic study has suggested.
The study by a team of researchers for University College London (UCL) was commissioned by the former Office of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement and published by the Fair Work Agency.
It uncovered “widespread and pervasive rights violations” that had harmed workers throughout the UK across all employment sectors, UCL said.
The research team has argued it is the most comprehensive study to measure employment rights violations faced by workers in the UK.
Some of the violations the researchers uncovered were clearly illegal, while others, because of the complexities of the law, were only potentially illegal depending on their context, they added.
The research found that, in total, at least 5.4 million workers were paid less than the national minimum wage, charged illicit work-finding fees, and/or not provided legally required payslips, contracts or key information documents, all of which are clear violations of UK employment law.
The rate of these violations increased to one in four (25.6%) for the most vulnerable or “precarious” workers. These were people facing a combination of at least two factors such as low income, non-traditional jobs, or coming from an immigrant and/or ethnic minority background in a small workplace.
Additionally, the researchers found that 70%, or about 26.6 to 28.7 million workers,...
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