Briefing: the Government’s Fair Work Agency risks becoming a ‘toothless watchdog’

An IER briefing that analyses the Government’s Fair Work Agency. It warns that the Government’s new workplace watchdog risks failing to deliver meaningful protections for workers unless urgent changes are made.

The briefing, authored by Prof David Whyte, Queen Mary University of London and Prof Ruth Dukes, University of Glasgow highlights longstanding weaknesses in the UK’s system of workplace enforcement and argues that the new Agency could repeat past failures without stronger powers and funding.

The Fair Work Agency brings together the functions of existing labour market enforcement bodies into a single organisation. However, the briefing warns that:

• The Agency will operate within a weakened regulatory system, with funding for enforcement bodies reduced by at least 58% in real terms
• Workplace inspections and enforcement activity have fallen sharply over the past 15 years

The briefing calls on the Government to:

• Ensure the Agency is properly funded, with ring-fenced resources to support its expanded remit
• Introduce a robust inspection regime without advance warning to employers
• Establish a credible threat of prosecution for non-compliance
• Give trade unions a central role in enforcement, including the ability to bring cases to court

Please see our Press Release here.

Listen to more of our expert comment on various elements of the Employment Rights Bill, and ‘Working Life’, our new podcast series discussing the Employment Rights Act, via the IER Podcast.