Key issues
Our service is accessible to a wide range of people who are in or at risk of precarious work. However, there is no doubt that the issues they experience are not simply the outcome of individual vulnerabilities, but also an expression of wider systemic issues.
In 2024 our work challenging such systemic issues focused on three key themes.
Migrant care workers’ exploitation by visa sponsors
Our November 2023 report Systemic drivers of migrant worker exploitation was among the first publications to expose the risks derived from an immigration system that puts employers in charge of migrant workers’ visas, and an employment enforcement system that is fragmented, under-resourced, and non-transparent. The issues documented in the report turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. Our frontline team was subsequently inundated by enquiries from migrant workers who were abused by the employers who sponsored their visas, particularly in the care sector.
In 2024 as many as 116 people who contacted the charity were migrant workers on the Health and Care Worker visa (HCWV). Of 58 clients whom we supported with their employment matters, the most common workplace issues cited were non-provision of work and subsequent non-payment of wages (56% of enquiries), unauthorised deductions from wages (37% of enquiries), and dismissals (21% of enquiries).
While our legal advice teams supported workers on the HCWV to challenge employers (read more about our key win here) and understand their immigration rights (including by creating a new migrant care workers rights’ guide), our policy team worked hard to raise awareness of the changes needed to address the power imbalance inherent in the work sponsorship system.
In March, we gave evidence to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 Committee on exploitation in the care sector. We spoke about the vulnerability flowing from the work sponsorship system, the use of repayment clauses in the sector, and the government’s changes to regulation in the sector. The Committee’s report, released in October, echoed many of our calls for better regulation and more flexibility for workers to escape from exploitative situations.
We also strived to raise awareness of these issues in the media (see our media mentions page). Following our work with the Guardian to expose the “debt traps” faced by migrant social care workers, the then Shadow Home Secretary branded the allegations “a disgrace”. Yvette Cooper also pledged to investigate the treatment of care workers if Labour won the next general election. We will continue to call on the Home Office to deliver on that pledge.
The culmination of this work came in November, when we published a major new report on the experiences of migrant workers in England’s adult social care sector. This received wide coverage, including in a parliamentary debate led by Tony Vaughan MP.
Seasonal Worker Scheme
Every year, the Homes Office issues tens of thousands of visas to migrant workers under the Seasonal Worker Scheme. In this sponsored visa type, sponsorship is provided not by individual employers, such as farms, but by a handful of labour providers authorised by the Home Office to place people on farms.
Despite this difference, the Seasonal Worker visa still deepens the worker-employer power imbalance by design. It offers up to just six months of employment in the UK and restricts workers’ right to work to only those employers with whom they are placed by their visa sponsor.
Moreover, in the first three quarters of 2024 as many as 84% of the nearly 31,000 Seasonal Worker visas issued were granted to Central Asian and Moldovan nationals. The language barrier means that workers often struggle to understand their rights and responsibilities, and cannot access support through standard services.
We are one of just a handful of organisations in the UK that supports seasonal workers. In 2024, we were contacted by 57 seasonal agricultural workers with employment issues. By far the most common concern raised by 33 clients was their visa sponsor refusing or not offering a transfer request to another farm - despite the fact that visa sponsors should not normally refuse such requests.
While our legal advisers supported workers to understand and access their rights, our policy team continued to call for systemic change. In 2024 we marked the first full year since the Work Rights Centre set up the Seasonal Worker Interest group with other civil society actors to advocate for the rights of migrant seasonal workers in the UK.
The focus of the group has been calling on the government to make structural changes to the scheme that would increase worker protections. The group submitted a number of briefings to the government, engaged in 1:1 sessions with the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and organised a drop-in session in Parliament to raise awareness of the issues facing seasonal workers with MPs.
Pressure from our group has led to some positive changes in 2024. For example, earlier this year DEFRA announced that the rule requiring employers to pay workers for 32 hours a week was for the whole duration of their time in the UK, not just those weeks where farms chose to assign them work. This should provide some level of income security for workers, though we are weary of potential side-effects like increased productivity expectations on workers and higher turnover in staff.
We also made significant inroads into getting employers in the sector to adopt the Employer Pays Principle (EPP). Workers from typically low/middle income countries can find themselves in debt as a result of paying migration and recruitment costs associated with a prospective job opportunity. This can increase workers’ vulnerability to different types of exploitation including forced labour and trafficking.
Reflecting the Dhaka Principles for Migration with Dignity, EPP is an internationally recognised best practice standard requiring that no workers should pay for a job and that the costs of recruitment should be borne by employers. Earlier this year, the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX) SMETA 7.0 audit standard, which is commonly used by businesses in the sector to assess workplace standards was changed.
This change introduced a requirement on farming and growing businesses to pay for the recruitment and transportation fees of seasonal workers as part of EPP. We will continue to advocate for improvements to the Seasonal Worker Scheme in 2025.
Employment Rights Bill and the new Fair Work Agency
Our Systemic drivers report exposed the risks derived from a fragmented employment enforcement system, and recommended the adoption of a single enforcement body for labour rights. We were encouraged to see this recommendation reflected in the Labour Party’s manifesto and later in the Employment Rights Bill. The draft bill promises, among other things, to bring the enforcement of employment rights under the remit of a new singular Fair Work Agency (FWA).
After much anticipation, the bill received its first reading in the House of Commons on 10 October 2024. Ever since, we have strived to highlight where the reforms could go further to protect migrants and other vulnerable workers. We published a summary analysis of the bill, made four evidence submissions (including to the Public Bill Committee, DBT, and DLME), and responded to one of the ancillary consultations launched after the bill was introduced. We’ve also been meeting with MPs and officials within the Department for Business and Trade to discuss ways of strengthening the bill, and ensuring the new FWA is able to get off the ground effectively.
We will continue our work in this area as the bill approaches the end of the committee stage in the first quarter of 2025. Once the Bill receives Royal Assent, we expect to enter a focused period of consultation on the set up of the FWA, and on further worker protections. As the government outlined in the Next Steps paper published with the first reading of the bill, this is just one of a series of legislative measures, many of which will be delivered through secondary legislation. To keep up to date with our work in this space, sign up to our mailing list.