The government department responsible for protecting agency workers from being exploited by their employers has had more than half its funding cut since the Conservatives came to power, according to a new study.
The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS) website explains that the EAS “works with agencies, employers and workers to make sure that employment rights are complied with, particularly for vulnerable workers.”
But its budget has been cut by 53 per cent in six years, bringing it down to £500,000 a year, and it now has the equivalent of nine full time staff, a cut of 70 per cent over the same period. At one point in November 2013, the EAS was employing just two staff. In the past year, it has prosecuted no employers for breaking employment law, though the number of complaints rose by a fifth between 2011 and 2016. The number of inspections has fallen by over half in that time.
May condemned what she described as an “irrational, unhealthy and growing gap between what these companies pay their workers and what they pay their bosses.” As always, her words are simply politician’s rhetoric
No comments:
Post a Comment