date: 8 August 2008

embargo: 00.01hrs Monday 11 August

Female migrant workers most at risk of not being paid minimum wage

New TUC research published today (Monday) reveals that female migrant workers may be more likely than any other group to be paid less than the national minimum wage (NMW).

Reports of the abuse of migrant workers have become increasingly common and the research - commissioned by the TUC's Commission on Vulnerable Employment and carried out by the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford - aimed to investigate the available information to uncover the reality of working life for migrant workers.

COMPAS reviewed the pay, working hours, type of work and accommodation of recent migrant workers who have been living and working in the UK for less than 10 years, in the West Midlands and in the East of England/East Midlands (both areas where there has been high levels of recent migration). National information about migrant workers, such as the Government's Labour Force Survey (LFS), was also included in the report.

The report found that migrant workers were much more likely to experience problems at work, and highlighted a number of worrying trends:

• Recent migrants work longer hours per week than most other workers - for example 55 per cent of recent migrants work 31-48 hours per week, and 15.4 per cent work more than 48 hours per week, compared to 48.3 per cent and 13 per cent of workers generally.
• Migrant workers are more likely to be working as temps or in insecure work (for example not having a written contract) than any other workers.
• Recent migrant workers are more than twice as likely as other workers to be earning less than the appropriate NMW for their age.
• Women who are recent migrants to the UK are 1.5 times more likely than male migrant workers to be paid less than the NMW.
• Women who migrate to work in the UK therefore face a disproportionate risk of being illegally underpaid - with around 35,000 denied the NMW.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'The rogue employers who underpay the NMW deserve zero tolerance. The NMW is making a real difference to the lives of many low paid migrant workers, and we must continue to crack down on those mean bosses not paying their staff the legal wage to which they are entitled.

'The TUC's Commission on Vulnerable Employment heard many complaints from migrant workers, including excessively long hours, no contract and a complete lack of health and safety training.

'Belonging to a trade union is the best form of defence a worker can have against exploitative bosses. UK unions are stepping up their efforts to organise migrant workers to stop employers from using a poor grasp of English or ignorance of UK employment law as an excuse to treat people badly.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The datasets that were considered were: Labour Force Survey (national); Workers Registration Scheme (national); West Midlands Migrant Worker Survey (West Midlands, sample size: 712 workers); The TUC Midlands survey (mainly Birmingham, sample size: 167 workers); Gangmaster's Licensing Authority Register for the West Midlands and East of England (sample size: 346 labour providers); Mobile Europeans Taking Action (META) database (sample size 613 workers); Advice for Life (AfL) database (sample size: 77 workers); Eastern European Migrants Advice Committee (EMAC) database (sample size 96 workers); and Kalayaan database (sample size: 687 workers). Full details are available in the report (Anderson B and Jayaweera H (2008) Migrant Workers and Vulnerable Employment: a Review of Existing Data. Oxford: COMPAS, University of Oxford), from the Commission on Vulnerable Employment's website at: http://www.vulnerableworkers.org.uk/cove-evidence-gathering/cove-research

- The TUC have calculated the number of recently (within the last ten years) arrived migrant women being underpaid the minimum wage, controlling for differences between robust Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) pay data, and LFS pay data. Full details of the analysis are available upon request.

- The Centre on Migration Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford conducts high quality research to develop theory, inform public opinion and evaluate policy. For further detail see the COMPAS website www.compas.ox.ac.uk. COMPAS is core funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre

- TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Congress 2008 will be held at the Brighton Centre, Brighton from Monday 8 September to Thursday 11 September. All applications for media passes must be received no later than noon Tuesday 2 September. The form for media credentials can be accessed at www.tuc.org.uk/mediacredentials

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Elly Brenchley T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07900 910624 E: ebrenchley@tuc.org.uk

Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk

Press release (800 words) issued 11 Aug 2008