The need for a Single Enforcement Body for Employment Rights

The need for a Single Enforcement Body for Employment Rights [ 120 kb].

Last month the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy opened a consultation on whether to establish a single enforcement body for employment rights. The proposed body would replace the majority of organisations currently responsible for enforcement, creating a single place where workers could go if they were experiencing problems at work. It would be responsible for a range of core employment rights, including some, like holiday pay, which the government has never previously enforced. 

This is an important and long overdue initiative, for which Citizens Advice has been campaigning for nearly twenty years. The current enforcement system is complicated, confusing and often relies on workers pursuing their employer themselves through the tribunal system. A single enforcement body should make it easier for people to raise a complaint, and is a vital step to end a situation when only a small minority of workers who experience employment problems get any kind of redress.