APPENDIX 11
Memorandum by the National Group on Homeworking
(NGH) and Oxfam GB's UK Poverty Programme
NGH and Oxfam would like to ask the Select Committee
to consider the case of the employment status of UK homeworkers
as part of its inquiry into employment regulation, and this submission
sets out some of the issues that homeworkers face. [82]
In the UK, there are hundreds of thousands of
homeworkers, or outworkers, who manufacture goods at home in the
same way as other workers manufacture goods in a factory[83].
These workers, primarily women and many from an ethnic minority[84],
produce goods across many different sectors, including textiles,
printed and paper products, electronics, plastics and rubber,
and undertake many different tasks, including trimming, assembly,
packing, machining, soldering and sewing.
Homeworkers provide manufacturers and their
suppliers and sub-contractors with a much more flexible labour
force than an on-site factory labour force might. Manufacturers
are able to draw on an army of workers when they have a tight
deadline to meet, but often have no commitment to employing these
individuals when order levels are low and there is no work. In
the current global trading climate, in which producers are under
enormous pressure from retailers to hold costs as low as possible,
this flexibility is valuable in order to win orders. In some ways,
this "flexible" employment can suit the worker, who
often lacks alternatives to earn a livelihood. For example, she
may have caring responsibilities that make working from home convenient.
However, it is essential that these workers have equal access
to the same protective employment rights afforded to on-site workers
to protect homeworkers (and other types of worker) from unscrupulous
employers, given the competitive pressures in modern supply chains.
[85]
Since October 2004, homeworkers have been entitled
to the full level of National Minimum Wage (NMW) for their work,
even if, as is usually the case, they are paid by the number of
pieces produced. The new rules require employers to show, by means
of time and motion studies (or other tests) that a fair piece
rate system is in place and therefore should be able to show how
their homeworkers are able to earn the NMW for the hours worked.
However, NGH and Oxfam believe that it is unlikely at present
that many of homeworkers will dare to claim their entitlement
to the NMW.
Homeworkers are not necessarily classified as
employees of the company, which supplies their work. In a recent
case, homeworkers who trim rubber products in Hampshire had been
dismissed as a result of asserting their statutory right to be
paid the NMW. An Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled in September
2004 that they should not be considered to be employees[86].
As a result the homeworkers who had all worked for the company
for over five years were not then able to make a claim for unfair
dismissal and/or redundancy. When the NMW came into force, many
workers, such as these, who had previously worked under a verbal
contract, had to sign a written contract. In their written contract,
the Hampshire homeworkers' employer deemed that the homeworkers
were casual, self-employed workers, despite some of them having
worked for the same sole employer for over 10 years. The homeworkers
signed the contract because they would have lost their work if
they did not. As a result, homeworkers, who had successfully claimed
their right to be paid the National Minimum Wage, had no legal
comeback when their employer subsequently stopped giving them
work, since, being "self-employed", they could not have
been made redundant or have been dismissed.
Homeworkers, such as the Hampshire rubber trimmers,
are not running their own businesses on their own account. They
are being paid a wage for a task completed in their home under
instruction by the company. Most do not have any other "employer"—in
fact one of the Hampshire workers was asked by her employer not
to take on any other paid employment[87].
They are integral to the company's production line, making up
a third of the company's entire workforce, and they do not share
in the profit of the company that they work for.
The government has yet to decide how to respond
to its consultation on employment status issues, undertaken over
a year ago, which included the employment status of homeworkers.
Unless the government changes the law to give homeworkers employment
status, just as piece-rate workers in factories have employment
status, the entitlement to the NMW will be meaningless for many
homeworkers. Their employers know that they can continue to underpay
their workers illegally because any worker who claims can be dropped
from the payroll. We are asking the government urgently to address
this anomaly.
UK Poverty Programme
Oxfam GB
There are also problems with statistics on ethnic
minority homeworkers. It is likely that the figures provided by
Huws of 46% (Huws 1994: 5) and Felstead of 54% (Felstead 1996:
91) are too high, due to their sampling procedures, which focused
on urban areas with high ethnic minority populations. Ethnic minority
homeworkers are also more likely than the rest of the population
to work in manufacturing homework. For example, Labour Force Survey
statistics suggest that in 1994 approximately 70% of female Pakistani
and Bangladeshi homeworkers were involved in the production of
textiles, clothing, and footwear. The remaining 30% are engaged
in other craft-related occupations (Felstead and Jewson 2000:
79). In Australia, homeworkers are often Vietnamese women, and
in India they are often women from Muslim minorities.
82 This submission is based on chapter 3 of the briefing
paper Made at Home, published in May 2004 and co-produced by Oxfam,
NGH and the TUC http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what-we-do/issues/trade/bp63-homeworkers.htm Back
83
NGH estimate that there are possibly over a million homeworkers
in the UK, and the DTI estimate that over 100,000, at least, are
entitled to the National Minimum Wage. Back
84
Adequate statistics are not available about the ratio of men and
women undertaking homework. Research suggests that up to 10% of
homeworkers may be men (Huws 1994: 4 and Felstead et al., 1996:
91). Enquiries to NGH's advice line suggests that the number of
men carrying out homework may be growing, particularly in areas
of industrial decline (for example, in South Wales) and in rural
areas, where there is little alternative employment and lack of
transport. Back
85
For more details about these pressures, see "Trading Away
our Rights" published by Oxfam in February 2004. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/trade/trading_rightts.htm Back
86
Appeal No UKEAT/0150/04/DM. Back
87
In this case as a supermarket checkout assistant. Back
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