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14th August 2008

NEWS IN BRIEF

The Government has recently unveiled a programme to crack down on rogue employers by providing vulnerable workers with a telephone helpline to report abuses to the relevant enforcement agencies. At the same time it announced a £6 million information campaign to raise awareness of employment rights among vulnerable workers and how to enforce them.

The crack down will be overseen by a new Fair Employment Enforcement Board which will co-ordinate the work of the government enforcement agencies covering minimum wage, health and safety, employment agencies and gangmasters. The new Board will be chaired by a Government Minister and will include representatives from business and trade unions, as well as the enforcement agencies.

The Vulnerable Workers Enforcement Forum, which was established to examine abuses of employment law, has worked with the Government over the past year to develop a report with key initiatives to protect workers.

Among its key findings, the Forum identified:

• A low awareness of employment rights and how they are enforced among vulnerable workers, along with a reluctance to report problems and a lack of knowledge about how to do so.
• Complications created by five different enforcement bodies operating separate helplines and a low profile of some enforcement bodies

It is not yet clear when the new measures announced recently by the Government will come into force.

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