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Vulnerable worker abuse a 'national scandal'

Two million workers in Britain are 'trapped in a continual round of low-paid and insecure work where mistreatment is the norm,' according to a new report. A TUC-convened commission found some employees being paid £1 an hour, some working 70 hours a week and others facing sexual abuse and hazardous workplaces. The Commission on Vulnerable Employment (CoVE), set up last year by the TUC, includes employers and independent experts as well as trade unionists. The Commissioners reported this week that they were shocked both by the extent of vulnerable work and that much of the poor treatment they found was perfectly legal. The Commission said the government, unions, employers and consumers must now all play a part in ending exploitation at work. The report concluded 'employment practices attacked as exploitative in the 19th century are still common today,' adding that the 'poor treatment at work that we have found should not be tolerated.' TUC general secretary and chair of the Commission, Brendan Barber, said: 'All the Commissioners - whatever their backgrounds - were shocked at just how vulnerable some workers are in today's Britain. Their treatment is a national scandal, and we need urgent action. But we have to cut thought the sterile debate that has turned any proposal to help even the most exploited people at work into a pro-union, anti-business old Labour move. Good employers have nothing to fear - and much to gain - from policies that stop them being undercut by bad employers who break the law or use loopholes to get round it.'

• TUC news releases on the CoVE report, vulnerable female workers, bogus self-employment in the construction industry and the shortage of employment rights advice. BBC News Online. The Observer.
• Commission on Vulnerable Employment (CoVE).

Briefing document (300 words) issued 9 May 2008