Following its consultation in summer 2019 on establishing a new single labour market enforcement body for employment rights, the government has finally published its response to that consultation and confirmed that it is still committed to creating such a body.

The new body will need to be established through primary legislation, when parliamentary time allows, so it is likely to be some months yet before it is operational. Once it is eventually established, it will bring three existing labour market enforcement bodies into a single organisation and will have all the existing powers belonging to these three bodies. These three bodies are:

• HMRC National Minimum Wage Enforcement – enforces the National Minimum Wage
• the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate – protects agency workers
• the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority. – tackles modern slavery.

The new body will also deliver a significantly expanded remit, including powers to enforce statutory sick pay, holiday pay and transparency in supply chains/modern slavery statement reporting and new powers to tackle non-compliance, with the introduction of civil penalties for underpayment for the breaches under the gangmasters licensing and employment agency standards regimes that result in wage arrears. In addition, it will:

• support employers to comply with the law, building on the compliance activity of the existing bodies
• provide detailed technical guidance, as well as introduce a compliance notice system for lower harm breaches
• be more effective at identifying non-compliance through better data use and analysis, as well as tackling the barriers that can prevent workers, third parties and employers from coming forward with information.

Source: New feed