Enforcing workers’ rights: MPs to take evidence from businesses and enforcement tsar
The Business and Trade Committee will take evidence on good work and protecting workers’ rights on 7 May.
Meeting details
A line-up of well-known firms that have been named as paying employees less than minimum wage, including P&O Ferries and WHSmith, will be questioned on how and why their staff were left out of pocket, and working conditions.
The Committee will hear from the Government’s Labour Market Enforcement Director, Margaret Beels, about the challenges she faces in enforcing labour laws and what is being done to ensure they are being followed.
MPs will also ask economists and investors what best practice and good employment reporting looks like, and how applying it could make a more investable business landscape.
A report on UK Labour Markets published by the Committee in April 2023 concluded that workers’ rights enforcement was “wholly inadequate”. It cited that there were half the labour inspectors needed and on average firms are audited on minimum wage once every 500 years.