Worker exploitation becomes less likely
The government announce on December 17th what it called "The largest upgrade in a generation to workplace rights".Included in this upgrade are a number of measures designed to help mainly lower paid workers receive their entitlements.
In truth, this exercise has been wrongly branded. Rather than introducing many new rights, the legislation is far more concerned with enforcing and policing rights that are already in place. While this is good, the dramatic changes that the government is claiming will have little effect on companies like Extraman, which has always placed their workers' rights at the forefront of all we do. However, the huge number of companies that have taken advantage of the many available loopholes to exploit their workers will find life more difficult.
One very important change (from April 2020) is that the notorious "Swedish derogation" will be outlawed. This has been one of the worst tools for mass exploitation of workers since it was introduced as part of the Agency Workers Regulations in 2011. In has existed solely to prevent workers who have worked at a site for 12 weeks or more from earning the same pay as a comparative permanent worker. Extraman has not used this option but very many have, to the detriment of hundreds of thousands of workers. While a long way off, justice is at last being brought closer.