Enforcement of workers' rights

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/instemplrighj.3.1.0107
• Pages: 107-113
• Published date: 01 January 2020
• Date: 01 January 2020

Enforcement of workers’ rights

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Introduction

The principal focus of our proposals in the Manifesto for Labour Law is to

deliver decent standards at work via collective bargaining. An important

role nonetheless remains for the law in setting minimum standards on

wages, working time, equality, health and safety, dismissal and so on. A

large body of evidence indicates that the system at present is failing to

deliver the rights it ostensibly guarantees. Although fees for bringing

employment tribunal (ET) claims have, for the moment, been abolished in

the wake of the UNISON judgment of the Supreme Court,54 much more

needs to be done to ensure that legal standards are not mere statements

of legal theory but are realised in practice for all workers – and that

employers who abuse workers’ rights do not gain an advantage over those

who respect them.

International legal duties

Almost all international labour standards to which the UK is a signa tory rec-

ognise the importance of effective delivery and enforcement of social rights.

 The European Social Charter requires states to pursue ‘by all appropriate

means’ conditions in which rights are ‘effectively realised’, and the indi-

vidual provisions begin with the words ‘with a view to ensuring the

effectiveexerciseoftheright. . .’.

 Article 2 of the UN Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

of1966requiresstatestotake‘allappropriatemeans’,usingthemaxi-

mum of its ‘available resources’ in order to achieve the full realisation

of rights.55

 UN Conventions on anti-discrimination emphasise the high duty on

states to eliminate discrimination,56 while Article 6 of the European

Convention on Human Rights guarantees a right of access to a court in

relation to civil rights to ensure rights which are effective in practice.57

 The UK has ratified (save for Part II) ILO Convention 81, requiring a sys-

tem of labour inspection in industrial workplaces in order to ‘ensure the

enforcement of legal provisions relating to conditions of work’.58

Enforcement of workers’ rights