“The long-promised Single Enforcement Body is not a magic bullet, but it gives us a fair shot at improving clarity for workers and employers and should mean non-compliance issues are addressed quickly and thoroughly. It will need proper resourcing and political backing to hit its target, and we urge government to go further by making the regulations around work and pay, such as holiday pay, much simpler for everyone to understand and comply with.
“We must avoid the risk of knee-jerk assumptions that it is only the standard 9-5 ways of working that are safe and manageable. We need more flexibility in thinking about how people are employed, not less, if we are to encourage people with caring responsibilities, the over 50s or long-term unemployed, back into work. The UK economy stands to lose up to £39 billion in GDP every year from 2024 unless business and governments act on labour shortages.
“Let’s not unintentionally prevent people from working in a way that suits both them and their employers because government cannot make oversight and enforcement work.”
