TUC commission report on vulnerable workers finds that access to advice is a problem
In May this year, the TUC's Commission on Vulnerable Employment (COVE) published the results of its research into vulnerable employment in its report Hard Work, Hidden Lives. The report is based on evidence given by vulnerable workers, statistical analysis, submissions from academics and employment rights professionals, including Law Centre and CAB employment workers.
The report defines vulnerable employment as "precarious work that places people at risk of continuing poverty and injustice resulting from an imbalance of power in the employer-worker relationship". It estimates that there are around two million workers in the UK who are in vulnerable employment.
One of the key recommendations that the report makes is that there should be improved awareness and advice.
It says that "vulnerable workers have little knowledge of their rights and find it hard to get advice. This is unsurprising as government does little to publicise employment rights while advice and legal agencies are under-resourced, creating employment rights ‘advice-deserts’ in parts of the UK".
This finding is based partly on results from the survey of CABx and Law Centre employment rights workers that COVE carried out. Among other things the survey results showed
- over three-quarters of Law Centres had experienced cuts in real terms from the LSC and local councils in the three years before interview
- between 55% and 67% of CABx had experienced cuts in real terms (i.e. both static funding and decreases) from the LSC and local councils
- time spent in fund seeking increased or greatly increased for 81% of CABx and for 84% of Law Centres
- time available for advice work decreased, or greatly decreased as a result of the time expended on fund-raising, for half of Law Centres
- two thirds of Law Centres (94 per cent of which had core LSC funding) reported advice time had decreased as a result of the LSC contract (40 per cent reporting a decrease, 23 per cent a great decrease)
- only 15 per cent of CABx (41 per cent of which had LSC core funding) reported cuts in advice time caused by time spent on the LSC contract and 63 per cent said there was no change
- 70% of CABx and 80% of Law Centre advisers felt that they had “too few or far too few (employment) advisers
- around two-thirds of Law Centres and CABx felt that they had "too little or far too little" legal experience to help migrant workers
- almost three-quarters of CABx and 61% of Law Centres felt that they had “too few or far too few” resources to advise workers who do not have English as their first language
