Enforcement of employment rights recommendations
We welcome the opportunity to put forward our views on the part of this Government 'good work' consultation concerned with the state enforcement of holiday pay and sick pay, and agree with Matthew Taylor (and subsequently, the Director of Labour Market Enforcement) that there is an enforcement ‘gap’ in respect of holiday pay, particularly for those with 'worker' status, e.g. agency workers. There can also often be problems for workers in accessing sick pay, even if there is no wrongdoing on behalf of their engager.
We note that there are no questions in this consultation looking at whether HMRC are, in fact, the right state body to take on the role of enforcing holiday pay (they already enforce sick pay) and we would urge the Government to consult further on this assumption – certainly before looking at matters of implementation. Some workers will ‘fear’ HMRC, particularly if they have had problems with them before over tax or tax credits issues in the past.
The consultation document can be found on GOV.UK.
Our response can be found here: Enforcement of employment rights recommendations – Taylor Review – LITRG response
Meredith McCammond