The government has launched a helpline to advise both employers and their workers about employment rights.
The Pay and Work Rights hotline is part of a wider campaign to raise awareness of workplace rights, and will provide information on topics including the national minimum wage, working time, employment agency standards and gangmaster licensing.
Previously calls on these topics were answered by five separate government bodies, and the government hopes this unified approach will make it easier for workers and employers to deal with multiple abuses.
Business minister Pat McFadden, said: “By consolidating the current complex system of different helplines for different issues into one single number we are making it easier for workers to report abuses and for government to respond.
“We want to transfer the burden of navigating the system from the worker to the government. This is an important step and we are determined that the recession does not become an excuse to deny people their basic rights at work.”
The helpline, based in Manchester, will be staffed by specialist advisers. Information given by callers will then be passed to relevant enforcement bodies who will take further action.
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Tom Hadley, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s director of external relations, said it was “a step in the right direction”.
A video has been produced to explain how the hotline will work:
