date: 9 September 2006

embargo: 11:30 am Sunday 10 September 2006

One in five is a vulnerable worker

Five million workers - one in five - can be classed as vulnerable and subject to exploitation, according to a report written for the TUC by the independent Policy Studies Institute and published today (Sunday) called The Hidden One-in-Five ­ -Winning a Fair Deal for Britain's Vulnerable Workers.

The report uses official statistics to show that around 5.3 million workers earn below one third of the median hourly wage and do not have a trade union to negotiate their terms and conditions, and are therefore vulnerable to exploitation.

Some groups in the workforce are particularly subject to poor conditions:

• According to the Labour Force Survey there are 1.2 million temporary employees in the UK of whom 226,000 are agency employees. Around a third of these meet the vulnerable worker definition. This is almost certainly an underestimate as the most vulnerable will not show up in official statistics.
• Many Migrant workers are clearly subject to exploitation, and are often denied even their legal rights. While there are no accurate statistics for the total number of migrant workers nearly half a million people for the new EU member states registered as workers between May 2004 and June 2006 (though many will have returned home).
• Workers in the informal sector (working for cash in hand) are again unlikely to show in official statistics, precisely because their employers are trying to avoid paying tax, national insurance and legal responsibilities. But the Small Business Council estimates the grey economy is worth £75 billion a year
• Many homeworkers also do not show up in official statistics, but even these reveal that nearly half a million earn less than one third the median hourly wage. Low paid homeworkers typically do jobs such as packing, component assembly and data entry.

Unions have been active on behalf of vulnerable workers. Examples in the report include the CWU agreement with Manpower; work by the TGWU, Unison and UCATT with migrant workers including the Justice for Cleaners campaign and the Overseas Nurses Network; Work by the Community union in Leicester with workers in the informal economy and union co-operation with the National Group on Homeworking.

Among the recommendations for future action to tackle the problems of vulnerable workers are:

• Support for, and early implementation of, the EU Temporary Agency Workers Directive.
• Introduce licensing for all employment agencies, similar to that for Gangmasters.
• Modernise the law on employment status so that agency, casual and other vulnerable workers have employee status with contracts of employment and entitlement to statutory employment rights.
• Improve enforcement of employment rights such as the minimum wage.
• Extend union recognition rights to small employers.
• Step up union work to organise and represent vulnerable workers.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

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Contacts:

Media enquiries: Ben Hurley T: 020 7467 1248; M: 07881 622416 ; E: bhurley@tuc.org.uk
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248; M: 07778 158175; E: media@tuc.org.uk

Press release (600 words) issued 10 Sep 2006