Workers across the UK have lost £2 billion worth of holiday pay, with more than one million people unable to take a single day of paid holiday, according to a new study.
This weekend, unionists gathered in Brighton for the first TUC conference under Labour in 15 years to present new research showing the extent to which workers are being denied their holiday pay – they are entitled to 28 days' paid holiday for every five-day week.
The research, which came before the government pledged to improve workers' rights for a generation, found that 1.1 million employees – around 1 in 25 – had not received a single day of paid holiday, with black and minority ethnic employees disproportionately affected. Low-paid workers are at greatest risk of losing their paid holiday. The occupations most likely to lose employees were waiters and waitresses, carers, home helpers and catering assistants.
The TUC said holiday pay was just one of a number of fundamental rights that many workers do not enjoy and criticised the lack of enforcement on issues such as the minimum wage and legal entitlement to pay slips. It called on Labour to follow through on its promise to set up a new umbrella watchdog, the Fair Work Authority, with the power to prosecute and fine companies that breach employee rights.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said the new watchdog needed “real power” to succeed. “More than a million workers have been denied the paid holiday they deserve and hundreds of thousands more have been denied basic rights such as being paid the minimum wage,” he said. “It's time to reset the dial and end the Conservative race to the bottom.”
“This shocking finding shows why we need an Employment Rights Bill and a Fair Work Office. Workers should be treated fairly and have minimum rights protected. There is huge support for this from people across the political spectrum.”
The survey comes as the Labour government and the trade union movement are largely aligned in the run-up to the TUC conference. In the run-up to the election, most Labour-affiliated unions were fiercely loyal to Keir Starmer, with Unite emerging as the only major union to express serious concerns about a rollback of Labour's policies to improve workers' rights.
Since the election, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been pushing for pay deals for NHS staff, teachers, the armed forces, trainees and medical interns, seeing them as an important early step to jump-start the economy and break down some of the bottlenecks to growth. The Conservatives have already effectively repealed Conservative laws that would have required certain sectors to meet minimum service levels during industrial action.
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It has become a point of attack for the Conservative party, with leadership candidates accusing Mr Reeves of making deals with trade unions while removing winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners. Mr Reeves has said he will not write trade unions a “blank cheque”, despite a series of settlements since the election.
But Labour's conference this weekend is likely to still raise and debate some tough political issues for the party, including a wealth tax on the top 1%, further nationalisation of industries like water and social care, and renegotiating the Brexit deal with the EU.
An Employment Rights Bill, expected to be introduced by the government next month, would ban “exploitative” zero-hours contracts, end “fire and rehire” practices, and make parental leave, sick pay and protections against unfair dismissal available from day one on a job. Union leaders are watching closely for signs that these measures will be weakened or delayed, but most still support the program.
