Migrant staff often underpaid

14 Aug 08
Recent migrants to Britain are twice as likely as other workers to receive less than the national minimum wage, with female workers 1.5 times as likely to be underpaid as their male counterparts, research has found.

15 August 2008

Recent migrants to Britain are twice as likely as other workers to receive less than the national minimum wage, with female workers 1.5 times as likely to be underpaid as their male counterparts, research has found.

The Centre on Migration, Policy and Society found that migrant workers were more likely to be working as temporary staff or without a written contract than other employees, and that recent migrants worked the longest hours.

Compas was asked by the Trades Union Congress's commission on vulnerable employment to review the pay, working hours, type of work and accommodation of workers who have been living and working in the UK for less than ten years.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'The rogue employers who underpay the national minimum wage deserve zero tolerance. It is making a real difference to the lives of many low-paid migrant workers, and we must continue to crack down on those mean bosses not paying their staff the legal wage to which they are entitled.'

On accommodation conditions, the report said that for domestic workers who are often dependent on their employer for accommodation, homes seemed to 'virtually function as a prison'. Sixty per cent of respondents in one set of data were not allowed out of the employer's household.

 

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