Our impact
The Work Rights Centre exists to support migrant workers and racially disadvantaged British residents to access employment justice and improve their social mobility.
We take our impact very seriously.
Our impact in 2024
£518k
Recovered for people exploited by their employers
653
People supported to understand and secure their immigration status
97%
Of clients know more about their employment rights
99%
Of clients would recommend us to a friend
A Ukrainian boy is reunited safely with his mother
When Olga Brandes-Shytikova first came to the UK to escape the war in Ukraine, she hoped her 11-year-old son, Mykyta, would join her soon. But when the government unexpectedly changed the eligibility requirements of the Homes for Ukraine scheme, she could no longer sponsor her own son, leaving him stranded in Ukraine. After a six-month battle with the Home Office, our immigration team secured discretionary leave, so Mykyta could reunite with his mother in the UK.
A migrant care worker wins thousands in interim relief
Our client, Kirankumar Rathod, paid £22,000 to an immigration agent in India to obtain a visa and job with a London care agency. He didn’t receive a single day of work or pay, and was dismissed when he complained. Our employment team supported him to sue his former employer for unpaid wages, unfair dismissal, and whistleblowing. With our help, Kiran won more than £16,000 in interim relief, a life-changing amount of money that has enabled him to support his family while the full case continues.
A Bulgarian woman who was assaulted at work gets compensation
For six months, Sofia* was subjected to sexual harassment and direct sex discrimination by the owner of the convenience store where she worked in East London. This culminated in a traumatic assault that left her with no choice but to return to Bulgaria for support from her family. After receiving legal support from our team, an Employment Tribunal judge awarded her £55,000 in compensation, and unpaid wages as she had been paid just £5 an hour. We are now focused on ensuring that the judgment is enforced.
An underpaid seasonal worker secures a transfer to a new farm
Kalysbek Tashmatov, a seasonal worker from Kyrgyzstan, reported that he was being underpaid while working on a farm in Northern Ireland. He requested a transfer to another farm, but the operator said they needed to investigate the situation first. Feeling a sense of injustice, Kalysbek resigned, leaving him unemployed with just £130 in savings. After he sought our help, we stepped in to explain the situation to the operator. Kalysbek was offered a placement at a different farm, which he gladly accepted.
A pregnant carer challenges false self-employment
When Samiyah* was sacked after requesting a day off for a midwife appointment, she immediately knew this was discrimination. But to make matters worse, Samiyah’s employer claimed she was self-employed, in a bid to wriggle out of affording her employment rights. We supported Samiyah to bring a case to the Employment Tribunal where a judge decided she was a ‘worker’ and should receive payment of unpaid wages and compensation. With her employment status decided, she can now sue for pregnancy discrimination.
A Polish man experiencing homelessness secures the right to work
Marcin* moved from Poland to the UK in 2007 to work, but unfortunately he became unwell. Unable to pay his rent, he became homeless and was diagnosed with cancer. Marcin missed the deadline to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme, set up when Brexit happened, leaving him without the right to work or rent. Despite the difficulties in evidencing the length of his time in the UK, we helped Marcin submit a late EUSS application, granting him settled status. He is seeking work as a cleaner to get back on his feet.
96
UK media mentions raising awareness of our clients’ experiences
2
Major research reports
29
Meetings with government and other decision makers
9
Written evidence submissions calling for policy change
How we measure impact
In the broadest sense, impact is about the difference we have made in the world. We want to see that our frontline service has improved people's lives, and that our campaigns have led to a fairer system for migrants and disadvantaged workers. The rest is social science: building a good set of indicators, a robust data collection infrastructure, and a culture for attention to detail.
Measuring the impact of our frontline service
We use a sophisticated client management system (CMS) to collect and securely store data that helps us understand our clients and the outcome of our work. This includes:
- Client demographics. We ask census-style questions to capture things like gender, age, nationality, as well as questions regarding English and IT literacy, financial need and access to public funds. This enables us to understand our clients in-depth, and to ensure that we deliver on the charity’s mission to reach disadvantaged groups;
- Employment conditions. We collect data on types of contract, occupational sector, and a wide set of employment issues ranging from unlawful deductions of wages to whistleblowing, to paint a picture of our clients’ employment issues;
- Immigration status. We sensitively ask questions about our clients’ immigration status and associated issues, to understand how to best support them to secure their status and access their rights in the UK;
- Support received from our team. Here we capture the level of advice we provided. Generally, this ranges in order of complexity from signposting, to general information, and written legal advice, and depending on each area of casework, can lead to employment tribunal claims, to making applications for immigration status (or indeed to chasing or contesting them), or to supporting clients with CV building and interview preparation.
Indicators of a successful outcome
To capture the difference we have made to clients’ lives, when we close a case and complete our advice work we look at three broad sets of indicators.
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Factual outcomes. Depending on the type of advice we provided, we want to see if people obtained remedy for their employment issue, if their immigration application was successful, or if employability cases led to training, volunteering, or jobs.
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Soft outcomes. Knowing one’s rights can empower people to challenge injustice and fight inequity, long after they parted ways with their legal adviser. This is why we strive to help our clients to understand their entitlements, then ask them to rate their knowledge of their rights as workers, and as migrants living in the UK.
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Satisfaction with our service. We also want to see how our clients felt about our service, if they would recommend us, and how we might improve. Their feedback constantly shapes how we deliver advice, inspires us to produce new guides for frequently asked questions, and direct our campaigns to the issues that matter most.
Limitations
Every framework that aims to capture the nuances of lived experience into a few measurable variables has some limitations. For example, because we regularly review and update our indicators in an attempt to keep up with our clients' changing needs, there are some limits to our ability to trace trends over time. Some data is also missing, and we respect clients' preference to skip some questions. If you have any questions about our data, please contact us.
Measuring the impact of our campaigns
The purpose of our campaigns is to bring about a fairer system for migrants and disadvantaged workers. While there is no off-the-shelf way to measure this, when we think about the impact of our campaigns work we generally want to see three key outcomes.
Raised awareness: decision makers have a better understanding of the issues affecting migrants and vulnerable workers, and their ability to improve them. We measure this with indicators like the number of decision makers we briefed, number of media mentions for the charity, and number of evidence submissions to Parliament.
Increased momentum: parliamentarians, the media, third sector allies and other actors beyond the Work Rights Centre begin to share our concerns and calls for reform. We measure this by monitoring the Hansard for mentions of our campaigns (in things like written questions, or debates), by keeping a log of in-depth media investigations.
Changed systems. The legislation, guidance documents, and other frameworks that contribute to precarious work and social immobility are updated, increasing protection for migrants and vulnerable workers. We measure this by monitoring updates to guidance and legislation.
Thank you ever so much for your professionalism! My special thanks go to Bethany: I could not do it without you! You are all doing fantastic work and the world needs more services and people like you!