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Attention: industrial, consumer, social affairs correspondents, news and planning desks

Migrant workers - overworked, underpaid and over here

A lack of legal protection for the thousands of migrant workers who arrive in the UK each year is giving the green light to unscrupulous gangmasters, agencies and employers to exploit foreign workers on a massive scale, says the TUC in a report published today (Monday).

The report ‘Overworked, underpaid, and over here’ expresses concern that whilst overseas workers are toiling for long hours, often for very little pay, and housed in appalling conditions, in almost every case, the employers taking advantage of their vulnerability and poor command of English escape punishment. It calls on the UK government to help improve the conditions of migrant workers by signing the UN Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families.

‘Overworked, underpaid, and over here’ includes official figures which show that the working population born outside the UK has increased from 7% of those at work in 1995 (1.8 million workers) to 9% in 2002 (2.6 million workers). The report says this is clearly an underestimate as it will not include the many people who work here illegally. Migrant workers are employed in almost every corner of the UK, with particular concentrations in London and the South East, East Anglia and Scotland. They work in health care, education, cleaning, food manufacture and agriculture, hospitality, IT and construction.

Foreign students (who can work for up to 20 hours a week during term time) are the largest number of migrant workers seeking employment (339,000 entered in 2001), while some 140,000 people came to the UK on work permits. Arrivals from the EU numbered 52,000, working holidaymakers (39,000), and the 2003 quotas for the Seasonal Agricultural Workers and the Sector Based Schemes are 25,000 and 20,000.

The TUC report highlights some of the difficulties faced by migrant workers - for example whilst it might be an offence for an employer not to provide paid holidays to a worker here on a work permit, to make a complaint the worker must go to a tribunal. If they lose their job as a result of raising the issue, they will have lost their right to remain in the UK, and will be unable to pursue their case. Similarly, employers should not be paying workers less than is stated on the work permit application, but the only power of enforcement is for the work permit to be revoked, at which point the worker loses their right to stay in the UK.

And whilst migrant workers are often exploited because of their ignorance of the law and their employment rights, says the TUC, the situation is even worse for those working without legal permission to do so. It’s likely, says the TUC, that these workers have no rights at all, with tribunals declining to hear complaints from workers without legal contracts.

According to the TUC report, the position of migrant workers is encouraging exploitative bosses not to pay people for work already done, or to pay them at rates well below the minimum wage. For example, last month migrant workers on the construction of the new Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh were found to be receiving less than the industry minimum rate, and the TUC has come across Portuguese nationals earning less per hour than UK seafarers.

‘Overworked, underpaid, and over here’ also contain figures which show that union membership amongst migrant workers has dropped much more rapidly than the figures for UK-born workers, suggesting that less than one in four migrant workers in Britain now has the protection of a union.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Popular perceptions that the UK is home to thousands of migrant workers, who plan to stay long term, and take the jobs of UK workers are simply wrong. The reality is that most migrant workers only stay for short periods, and their precarious legal status means many end up working incredibly long hours for not much pay, in jobs that UK workers wouldn’t want to do. The challenge for unions is to find ways of recruiting migrant workers, offering them support and guidance so they become less exploitable and more aware of their rights.

'If every illegal worker was removed from the UK, parts of the economy would collapse overnight. People arrive attracted by the money they believe they can earn, but their lack of legal status makes them vulnerable to criminal gangmasters and unscrupulous employers. So long as these workers continue to be deported but nothing happens to the people employing them, this unfortunate situation will continue. Everyone working in the UK deserves basic rights at work, and there must be no hiding place for bosses openly breaking the law.'

‘Overworked, underpaid, and over here’ includes a number of case studies which illustrate the extent of the problem:

• Sophie Taylor is a UNISON member, involved with the union’s Overseas Nurses Network (ONN), set up to give advice and support to nurses coming to the UK from the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Africa, and India to work in private care homes. She’s met workers who’ve had to fork out as much as £2,000 to agencies just to be put forward for work in the UK. Once here others are told that unless they work for a minimum two-year period, they’ll be liable for a ‘fine’ of up to £7,000. Sophie’s even come across workers told they’ll be sacked and deported if they are found with union information on them. The nurses work long hours, for low rates of pay, are often housed in appalling conditions, and are frequently asked to surrender passports and work permits. One woman from Malawi who told the employer she wanted to leave, had her possessions and passport confiscated in an attempt to force her to stay. When she went to the police, they were powerless to help, so the union intervened to help retrieve her things. Another Filipino nurse, who’d been the victim of racial and sexual harassment at a home in the south west, was told she had no redress under UK law, because she was only covered by Filipino law.

• Paulo was attracted to come to work in Wales by the prospect of good earnings - the agency who interviewed him in Portugal told him to expect £1200 a month for a 40-hour week, working in a meat processing factory. In fact he earned just £3.60 an hour after deductions for transport and other charges. These were identified as costs associated with his employment in the contract he signed, but it was never explained what these costs were. He also found that the agency organising his air tickets to the UK and back were charging him £300 each way. The agency also asked workers to sign away any potential tax rebates to the company. Paulo found the employer supervision very harsh, and says that he had not expected to be treated worse in a wealthy country like Britain than he would have been at home. An ex-shop steward, Paulo has now found a permanent job here, has joined the TGWU, and is actively recruiting his former colleagues to the union.

• Stepan Shakhno is a student and is President of the Lviv Regional Branch of the European Youth Parliament who travelled all the way from the Ukraine by bus with other young people heading for the UK to work on the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme. He says that competition to get on the scheme is so great that students can pay as much as $1000 dollars to their universities to secure a place. He tells of other young people who come to the UK, pay money to an agency which then puts them in touch with a language school, with whom they register as students. They are then free to work, only needing to visit the school when it’s rumoured checks are about to be made. Stepan has also come across people who pay large amounts of money to agencies on the promise of work here, only to find themselves abandoned at Victoria coach station with a tourist visa and left to fend for themselves. The ‘lucky’ ones who do get work usually find themselves picking fruit or employed in meat processing factories where they work long hours for low pay, from which housing (usually low standard and crowded) and transport costs get deducted. He’s also heard of people working for up to a month without pay, only to be met one day by the police and immigration officials and deported. The agency then brings in another group of undocumented workers, and the process begins again.

• Although Boris has a degree in politics and society, he is currently working as a labourer on a city of London building site. He came to the UK from Torun in Poland to earn some money and learn to speak English. Although he has no work permit or student visa, and is not legally entitled to work, he’s been employed on the same site for almost two years, earning around £65 a day. He doesn’t get holiday pay, and gets none of the rights enjoyed by the UK site workers. He says he knows of lots of other foreign workers, who because of their lack of legal employment status, are also treated badly by their employers. Some end up working overtime for no pay, or work long days for hourly rates less than the minimum wage, whilst others are sacked at whim. Boris knows that firms take on foreign workers like him because 'to them my lack of legal status makes me a better worker.' Whilst he thinks that it’s a good idea for all workers to belong to a trade union, he says that it’s very difficult for workers in his position. Workers without legal status don’t want to draw attention to themselves by asking for rights, 'you just work where they pay you the best.' Most foreign workers have no idea of their employment rights, often basing their knowledge of UK law on conversations had with their fellow workers.

Notes to Editors:

The TUC/JCWI conference ‘Migrant workers rights - could we do more in Britain?’ takes place at Congress House on Monday 14 July from 4pm to 7.15pm. Speakers include Frances O’Grady, TUC Deputy General Secretary, Patrick Taran, Senior Migration Correspondent, International Labour Organisation, Felicity Lawrence, Consumer Affairs Correspondent, The Guardian, and Professor Bill Jordan, Exeter University. If you would like to attend, contact the TUC media office.

You can access the full report ‘Overworked, underpaid and over here’ until Monday morning on the TUC's press extranet: a service exclusive to journalists wanting to access

pre-embargo releases and reports from the TUC. Visit www.tuc.org.uk/pressextranet

- If you want to apply for 2003 Congress credentials go to www.tuc.org.uk/mediacredentials2003. The closing date for applications is Friday 22 August 2003. Applications received after this date will be subject to a charge.

Contacts: Media enquiries: Liz Chinchen on 020 7467 1248 or 07699 744115 (pager) or email media@tuc.org.uk

Press release (1,900 words) issued 14 Jul 2003