Employers often use numerous channels for recruitment, including word of mouth, agencies and other paid for recruitment services, their own website and social media. Most distinctively, paid for recruitment services (including agencies) were used by 59 per cent of recruiting employers (15 percentage points more than across all sectors). Recruitment and employment of non-UK EU nationals is more common in the sector than average. Drivers of non-compliance Compliance with labour regulations is variable across the sector. While there are many ‘good’ employers and agencies, there are also some who pay less attention to employment rights legislation. There is a spectrum of non-compliance, ranging from advanced fee fraud to employers that genuinely do not realise they are in breach of legislation. Drivers of non-compliance with employment rights legislation include: long supply chains that make it difficult for workers to know who they are engaging with; widespread use of agencies and umbrella companies including some who do not respect relevant legislation; use of non-standard contracts; business pressures driven by large retailers forcing down costs; and workers’ lack of understanding of their legal status/rights. Worker experiences of employment breaches Warehousing workers reported a variety of employment rights breaches. There were three key areas where common breaches occurred: • Breaks – Being told or asked not to take breaks tended to occur when there was a high level of work to get through and targets were not being met. Workers on less secure contracts were more likely to feel pressured to work through their breaks and not challenge employers. • Pay – Common issues around pay involved either not being paid for all the hours worked or not being paid on time. Overall, not being paid for the total number of hours worked was slightly more common than not being paid on time. Both instances were generally seen to be due to administrative errors; however, some occasions may have been intentional noncompliance by the employer. • Health and Safety – Lack of appropriate equipment and space to conduct work safely was noted by workers. Healthy and safety concerns were reported by both junior and senior members of staff. How has the UK Warehousing sector been affected by the fissuring of the worker-employer relationship in the last 10 years? 6023 | Controlled | Page 6 of 65 The following breaches were less common: • Contract – Not being given a written contract was experienced by a small proportion of workers. • Harassment – Predominantly verbal harassment was reported by some more junior members of staff. • National Minimum Wage (NMW) / National Living Wage (NLW) – Being paid below NMW / NLW was not experienced by any of the workers that we spoke to, but some workers did believe that this occurred in the industry and non-UK workers were the most at risk. Awareness of rights and raising issues Stakeholders felt that workers generally had limited awareness of both employment rights and routes for raising breaches. They felt that workers had the highest level of awareness of National Minimum Wage/ National Living Wage entitlement. Awareness of rights around employment conditions such as holiday pay, sick pay, paid overtime, or breaks, was felt to be more limited. Generally, stakeholders believed that workers lacked awareness of most of the support agencies that they could turn to for assistance or to report incidents. Conversely, workers generally felt that they were reasonably aware of their rights in the workplace. However, when prompted on a variety of possible breaches, workers did not seem to have a high level of knowledge of their rights which would support this confidence. When workers had experienced breaches, they tended to raise these internally with their employer. They tended to speak to managers or supervisors in the first instance. None of the warehouse workers had turned to external agencies for assistance. This was predominantly due to the fact that they lacked awareness of the agencies that they could turn to for support or guidance. Workers were prompted on a range of available support organisations. Workers recognised the names of Citizens Advice (CA), Unite the Union, and the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS). HMRC was also frequently recognised, but not within the context of the NMW team. Workers tended rather to recognise that HMRC were the Government department that dealt with (income) tax. Workers had limited awareness of the Modern Slavery Helpline, Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) and Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EASI). Stakeholders agreed that more could be done to improve workers’ awareness of their rights.
.
