Newham Council’s Employment Rights Hub, the first of its kind in the UK, was launched this week by Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz at a Full Council meeting.
The hub has been set up to advise residents of their rights at work with Newham the first local authority to embark on such an initiative.
Everyone who works in the UK has employment rights, wherever they come from or whatever job they do, but it can be very difficult for employees to know what these are or how to stand up for them. The hub will help support residents in understanding and standing up for their rights in the workplace.
It will be run by the Our Newham Money team, which has recruited three new employment rights advisers to support Newham residents and provide a one-to-one service.
Workers’ rights are at the heart of the Council’s policy agenda, which is driven by a commitment to community wealth building and to measuring economic success on the health, happiness and wellbeing of residents.
Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz said: “There’s a massive awareness issue regarding what employment rights are. This has become even more important with the Covid pandemic, which has shown how precarious and insecure work has made people more vulnerable, affecting their ability to protect their health and remain safe.
“Unfortunately, we have seen decades where employment rights have been eroded and this has seen an increase in insecure and lower paid work. We know that a high percentage of Newham’s workforce are in such jobs and this makes them more vulnerable to exploitation and low pay. Many people aren’t being paid the minimum wage – let alone the London Living Wage – or aren’t receiving holiday pay. Also, people aren’t getting tested or isolating and this is because they can’t afford not to work and it’s difficult to obtain the government support available. The Employment Rights Hub will be able to help so many different cases and correct injustices.
“Our priority is for better quality and more secure local jobs with higher pay, something central to our local inclusive economic strategy as we emerge from Covid. However, we know that people need support and protection now and as a council we are on the side of our residents. This new free and confidential service means we can really help them.”
The hub has been developed in consultation with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and it formed a key part of the discussion at a webinar hosted by the Council in which the TUC took part on 16 June called “Insecure Work in a Pandemic”, focusing on the importance of workers’ rights in a fair and decent economic recovery.
Background information
The Council commissioned the Learning and Work Institute to help gain a better understanding of the nature and scale of employment rights abuse and to formulate an effective intervention. This focused on a wide range of statutory employment rights, including underpayment of the minimum wage, non-payment of sick pay and holiday pay, unfair dismissal, discrimination and bogus self-employment.
The findings suggested that employment rights abuse has been a significant and widespread problem in Newham. The nature of the local economy and the composition of Newham’s workforce puts the borough at particular risk of a range of common employment rights issues. Employment rights abuse has a number of negative consequences across social, economic and psychological dimensions, including depriving workers of much-needed wages and contributing to insecurity.
Underpayment of the minimum wage, wage theft, discrimination, unfair dismissal and bogus self-employment appear to be the most widespread and damaging forms of employment rights abuses in the borough. At least 1,800 and as many as 36,000 residents were underpaid the minimum wage in 2018, when there were also around 3,900 “bogus” self-employed workers (i.e. employers assert that their workers are self-employed when in fact they should be classed as employees) in Newham who were denied the rights they should be entitled to. Race discrimination and maternity discrimination are also significant issues for Newham residents.
The Employments Rights Hub is open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm; tel: 020 3373 6494; email: employmentrights@newham.gov.uk. The Hub is operating virtually until Covid-19 restrictions ease further.