More than a million workers in Britain do not receive any of the holiday pay they are guaranteed by law, according to a report exposing the scale of violations in the UK jobs market.
According to Resolution Foundation, workers across the country are being failed by employers abusing their rights, amid a steady rise in precarious working conditions over the past decade. The Resolution Foundation said that as many as one in 20 workers did not receive any holiday pay despite being legally entitled to at least 28 days a year
The government has taken steps in recent years to increase the resources and power of bodies such as HMRC and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Agency, which acts to protect workers from exploitation. However, Britain relies largely on individuals to hold non-compliant firms to account, with more than 100,000 applications made to the employment tribunal system last year alone.
Discounting those who are self-employed and do not get automatic legal protections for holiday and sick pay, the research suggests that at least a million people across the country are being denied their rights in one way or another.
According to the research, almost one in 10 workers do not receive a legally required payslip, making it hard for them to calculate whether they are receiving the right level of pay, pension and holiday and to check for any deductions.
Tax officials at HMRC have also identified a record 200,000 cases of workers not receiving the minimum wage as a result of enforcement work last year. The legal minimum is £8.21 an hour for workers over the age of 25.
According to the Resolution Foundation’s analysis, at least a quarter of those earning within 5p of the minimum wage are paid less than the legal minimum.
The analysis found that the likelihood of a worker being subject to a labour market violation was higher for those at the start and the end of their working lives.
Workers aged under 25 and over 65 are the most likely not to receive a payslip. About one in six workers over the age of 65 say they have no paid holiday entitlement, more than any other age group, while workers aged 25 and under are almost twice as likely be underpaid the minimum wage.
The analysis found that workers in the hotels and restaurants sector are the most likely to miss out on minimum legal workplace entitlements, with about one in seven workers saying they did not receive any holiday entitlement, three times the rate across the rest of the economy.
Workers in small firms and those on zero-hours contracts are the most likely to miss out on pay slips and holiday leave.
Lindsay Judge, senior economic analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: “The UK has a multitude of rules to govern its labour market – from maximum hours to minimum pay. But these rules can only become a reality if they are properly enforced. Labour market violations remain far too common, with millions of workers missing out on basic entitlements to a pay slip, holiday entitlement and the minimum wage.”
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