By Samuel Omokan and Beth Swords.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) has an ongoing programme of work focused on supporting Londoners to understand and enforce their employment rights. As part of this, in October 2019, the Mayor of London’s office invested in and established the Employment Rights Hub , designed with the purpose of helping Londoners to better understand their rights at work, as well as signposting information to trusted sources of support or advice in London.

The GLA commissioned us to undertake a co-creative qualitative research project in order to understand the challenges workers’ were facing when it came to enforcing their rights as an employee. The rationale behind the investment in the hub was that not knowing your rights was a crucial barrier preventing people from voicing their concerns at work. In this context, the GLA commissioned ClearView Research to undertake a co-creative qualitative research project in order to understand what additional barriers exist - in addition to knowledge of rights - that are stopping people from enforcing their rights in the workplace.

The uncertainty in the labour market during COVID-19 presented new challenges for workers’ rights. These included possible violations centred around inappropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), being forced to work when self-isolating or on furlough, unfair dismissal, and decisions around compulsory vaccinations. Efforts to understand how workers can be better supported to defend their rights in the workplace are crucial to ensure people are protected and know what support is available to them. This is particularly the case in the UK where employment legislation requires workers to proactively enforce their own rights at work. 

We designed this research project based on a co-creative, qualitative and deliberative approach to ensure that those with lived experience of employment rights violations were at the centre of the research project. A co-creation group of six people worked closely with the CVR team on the research design. As part of the fieldwork, we conducted 8 interviews with people who self-identified as struggling with writing, speaking or communicating in English. After thematically analysing the findings from the interviews, we then ran two workshops of 90 minutes each with 8 participants per workshop. These were set up as deliberative discussions, to identify the most pressing barriers preventing people from enforcing their rights and consider possible solutions to them. Throughout the project, we were supported by members of the Employment Legal Advice Network and a representative from the South London Refugee Association to ensure the process reflected the broad variety of voices these organisations represent. The group also played an important role in setting the legal and statutory context in which employment rights violations occur.

In total, through the duration of the project, we engaged 30 Londoners from diverse backgrounds with experience of employment rights violations. Within the report are recommendations for the GLA to consider the role they can play in supporting Londoners to advocate for themselves at work.

You can read this blog and the report in Gujarati , Romanian or Spanish .