A report said that tens of thousands of vulnerable workers were denied their legal entitlement of at least four weeks paid holiday a year. The government commitment to increase workers entitlement to paid holiday would be pointless without tougher enforcement of the existing rules.
Source: Still Wish You Were Here, Citizens Advice (020 7833 2181)
Links: Citizens Advice press release
Date: 2004-Dec
A report summarized fair employment practice in the Scottish Executive, guidance issued by the Executive on fair employment practice, and examples of fair employment practice in non-departmental public bodies.
Source: Scottish Executive and STUC Memorandum of Understanding: Paper on Fair Employment Practice and Effective Trade Unionism, Scottish Executive, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Report
Date: 2004-Dec
A report said that labour providers in the food and agriculture sector (including gangmasters) had to demonstrate that they were complying with the law - or they would lose contracts and risk prosecution under new licensing arrangements from 2006. It was produced by a consortium of retailers, food producers, growers and suppliers, and trade unions.
Source: A Licence to Operate: New measures to tackle exploitation of temporary workers in the UK agricultural industry, Temporary Labour Working Group, c/o Ethical Trading Initiative (020 7404 1463)
Links: Report (pdf) | ETI press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Nov
A paper said that job security guarantees by employers reduced employee perceptions of job insecurity. There was no evidence that increased job security through job guarantees resulted in greater work intensification, stress, or lower job satisfaction.
Source: Alex Bryson, Lorenzo Cappellari and Claudio Lucifora, Do Job Security Guarantees Work?, DP661, Centre for Economic Performance/London School of Economics (020 7955 7673)
Links: Paper (pdf) | Abstract
Date: 2004-Nov
A report called for a new employment rights agency to enforce the rights of the lowest-paid and most vulnerable workers.
Source: Somewhere to Turn: The case for a Fair Employment Commission, Citizens Advice (020 7833 2181)
Links: Citizens Advice press release
Date: 2004-Oct
The Employment Relations Act received Royal assent. It included measures to implement an employer-union agreement on information and consultation; to establish a fund to give financial support to trade unions to modernize their operations; and to extend, from 8 weeks to 12, automatic protection against unfair dismissal for employees taking lawfully-organized, official industrial action.
Source: Employment Relations Act 2004, Department of Trade and Industry, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Act | DTI press release | TUC press release
Date: 2004-Sep
The government said that it agreed with a committee of MPs on the need to introduce secondary legislation as soon as possible in order to implement a new licensing scheme for gangmasters. It rejected the suggestion that its approach to tackling illegal activity by gangmasters had been characterized by a lack of urgency.
Source: Gangmasters (Follow up): Government reply to the Committee's report, Twelfth Special Report (Session 2003-04), HC 1035, House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2004-Sep
A report said that non-payment of employment tribunal awards by employers was widespread, and could be on the increase.
Source: Empty Justice: The non-payment of employment tribunal awards, Citizens Advice (020 7833 2181)
Links: Report (pdf) | Citizens Advice press release
Date: 2004-Sep
A survey of employment tribunal applications in 2003 found that the key characteristics of the parties had not changed much since the 1998 survey, and that overall satisfaction with the system remained quite high.
Source: Bruce Hayward, Mark Peters, Nicola Rousseau and Ken Seeds, Findings from the Survey of Employment Tribunal Applications 2003, Employment Relations Research Series 33, Department of Trade and Industry (020 7215 5177)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-Aug
A trade union said that it had won agreement from the government to end the 'two-tier workforce' across all public services. The agreement would end the exploitation of low-paid workers by private companies which took over public service contracts. (A government promise to end the two-tier workforce was made in 2001, and implemented in local government in 2002.) The union also said it had won major changes in the way the private finance initiative would operate: public service workers would no longer be required to transfer out to private companies in private finance initiative schemes.
Source: Press release 21 July 2004, Unison (0845 355 0845)
Links: Unison press release | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2)
Date: 2004-Jul
A think-tank report said that new laws to give workers more rights had cost the public sector at least 6 billion under Labour governments since 1997. It claimed that the real cost was probably much higher because of the high proportion of women and part-time employees in public service, the grievance culture in the public sector; and the generous interpretation of minimum rights by public employers.
Source: Nicholas Boys Smith, No Third Way: Interfering government and its cost to business, Politeia (020 7240 5070)
Links: Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Jul
The Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004 received Royal assent. It established the Gangmasters Licensing Authority to set up and operate the licensing scheme for labour providers operating in the agriculture, shellfish gathering and associated sectors. Once the licensing arrangements were in place, the Act would prohibit anyone from acting as a gangmaster in the specified areas without a licence. It would also make it an offence for a person to enter into an arrangement with an unlicensed gangmaster.
Source: The Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Act | Defra press release
Date: 2004-Jul
The government said that it accepted the recommendations of an official taskforce which had called for the overhaul and consolidation of legislation relating to the employment of children.
Source: Letter to Better Regulation Taskforce from Margaret Hodge MP (Minister for Children, Young People and Families) 20 May 2004
Links: Text of letter (pdf) | TUC press release | Task Force report (pdf)
Date: 2004-May
A report highlighted the exploitation of homeworkers in Britain.
Source: Gina Hocking and Mark Wilding, Made at Home: British homeworkers in global supply chains, Oxfam GB (01865 311311), Trades Union Congress, and National Group on Homeworking
Links: Report (pdf) | Oxfam press release
Date: 2004-May
A report said that more and more employers were trying to deter workers from pursuing employment tribunal claims by threatening them with a counter claim for high costs.
Source: Employment Tribunals: The intimidatory use of costs threats by employers' legal representatives, Citizens Advice (020 7833 2181)
Links: No link
Date: 2004-Apr
The Trades Union Congress said that unfairness was still endemic in Britain s workplaces. It challenged the Labour party to produce a programme for the workplace in its next election manifesto that went beyond the goal of full employment and promoted well-rewarded, quality jobs in organisations where people were treated fairly.
Source: The Place of Work in a Fairer Britain: Agenda for the workplace, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294)
Links: Report (pdf) | TUC press release
Date: 2004-Mar
A report provided a range of statistics on employment tribunal cases in 1998. Where the case was settled, 59 per cent of employers and 47 per cent of applicants thought that the settlement was fair. 22 per cent of discrimination cases were withdrawn, whereas the proportion for other jurisdictions was 10-13 per cent.
Source: Findings from the 1998 Survey of Employment Tribunal Applications (Surveys of Applicants and Employers), Employment Relations Research Series 13, Department of Trade and Industry (020 7215 5177)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-Mar
An article reported on a study of advice provision in employment discrimination cases in Wales. It explored the opportunities and constraints of the Welsh context and profiled many of the policy challenges posed for the devolved administration. It demonstrated that, despite advances in equalities legislation and policy directives aimed at strengthening people's employment rights, a number of critical obstacles remained for the most disadvantaged groups.
Source: Charlotte Williams, 'Access to justice and social inclusion: The policy challenges in Wales', Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, Volume 26 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2004-Mar
A survey found that more than 9 out of 10 local authority by-laws on school-age working conflicted with national legislation.
Source: Carolyn Hamilton, Dazed and Confused: Why child employment laws in England are baffling parents and teenagers, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294) and National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (0207 825 2775)
Links: Report (pdf) | NSPCC press release | TUC press release
Date: 2004-Feb
A report called on the government to establish a 'Fair Employment Commission' to enforce the rights of millions of the lowest-paid workers - including migrant workers who were among the most vulnerable of all.
Source: Nowhere to Turn: CAB evidence on the exploitation of migrant workers, Citizens Advice (020 7833 2181)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-Feb
An official taskforce called for the overhaul and consolidation of legislation relating to the employment of children.
Source: The Regulation of Child Employment, Better Regulation Task Force/Cabinet Office (020 7276 2142)
Links: Report (pdf) | BRTF press release
Date: 2004-Feb
The government said that it would support a private member's Bill designed to prevent exploitation of workers by 'gangmasters'. This followed the death by drowning of 19 Chinese immigrant workers at Morecambe Bay, north west England. The Bill was subsequently given an unopposed second reading. Trade unions called for urgent new laws on corporate manslaughter.
Source: The Guardian, 10 February 2004 | Jim Sheridan MP, Gangmasters (Licensing) Bill, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 27 February 2004, columns 515-577, TSO | Press release 20 February 2004, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294)
Links: Guardian report (1) | Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | HOC research briefing (pdf) | Guardian report (2) | TUC press release
Date: 2004-Feb
A private member's Bill was introduced designed to regulate the activities of gangmasters operating in the agricultural industry.
Source: Jim Sheridan MP, Gangmaster (Licensing) Bill, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 7 January 2004, column 259, TSO
Links: Hansard | ePolitix report
Date: 2004-Jan
The Department of Trade and Industry published the first annual statement of forthcoming changes to domestic employment law and practice in its areas of responsibility. From 2004 domestic changes would only be implemented on two days each year - 6 April, start of the tax year, and 1 October, when the national minimum wage was reviewed.
Source: Statement of Forthcoming Employment Regulations in 2004, Department of Trade and Industry (020 7215 5000) | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 14 January 2004, columns 35-40WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | DTI press release
Date: 2004-Jan
Following consultation, the government published revised regulations designed to improve the resolution of disputes between individual workers and their employer.
Source: The Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004, Department of Trade and Industry, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Dispute Resolution Regulations: Government response to public consultation, Department of Trade and Industry (020 7215 5000)
Links: Draft Statutory Instrument | Response to consultation (pdf)
Date: 2004-Jan