Labour Market Enforcement Strategy 2018-19: government response
17 December 2018
The government has published its response to the Labour Market Enforcement Strategy 2018-19 which builds on the Good Work Plan following the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices.
The strategy made 37 recommendations on labour market enforcement, 7 of which overlap with commitments in the Good Work Plan:
BEIS/ HMRC should review the guidance around NMW in collaboration with stakeholders to identify and improve problem areas such as pay averaging and salary sacrifice.
HMRC NMW/NLW team should develop a more supportive approach when companies ask for advice in order to be compliant.
A statement of rights should be made mandatory for all workers from within week one of employment commencing.
Clear and accessible information on employment rights should be provided to workers opportunistically through a number of channels.
The right to a payslip should be extended to all workers.
For hourly paid workers, there should be mandatory inclusion of total hours worked and hourly rate of pay on payslips.
The Swedish derogation should be abolished - the legal loophole which enables some firms to pay agency workers less than permanent staff.
The recommendations that were rejected include:
In the longer term, hours and hourly earnings should be captured in Real Time Information data returns to HMRC.
The NMW penalty multiplier should be reviewed and increased again to a level that would ensure that there is an incentive to comply with the legislation.
The full list of recommendations is listed within the government response at Annex A.
United Kingdom Labour Market Enforcement Strategy 2018 to 2019: government response