The landmark Working lives research study has revealed “widely distributed issues and harms” affecting the national workforce.
The independent research project was first commissioned in 2022 by the former Office of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement (ODLME) to review labour market compliance in relation to minimum wage enforcement, employment agency standards, gangmaster licensing and more serious labour exploitation.
The introduction of the Employment Rights Act has led to work previously carried out by the ODLME being brought under the remit of the Fair Work Agency (FWA).
Working Lives: the scale and nature of labour market non-compliance and other work-based harms in the UK, published in May 2026 and based on quantitative and qualitative research across the UK between 2023 and 2025, is the most comprehensive investigation into UK workplace rights.
It will now inform the FWA’s first strategy, due early next year, to address issues such as health and safety, the gig economy, bullying and harassment and worker voice.
Working lives study reveals workers’ rights ‘breached at scale’
The Working lives study found workers’ rights are “likely breached at scale,” in the UK, with approximately 14% of the nation’s workers enduring clear rights breaches.
Commenting on the study, Ceri Finnegan, Policy Specialist at the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), suggests that these findings challenge “received wisdom that most businesses are compliant, and only a few ‘bad apples’ undermine labour standards.”
The Working lives study revealed key violations of UK employment law, including:
- Around 1 in 7 workers – or approximately 5.4 million people – experienced clear violations of basic employment rights, including payment below the national minimum wage, being charged illicit work-finding fees and/or not being provided legally required payslips, employment contracts or key information documents
- The rate of these violations increased to 25.6% for the most vulnerable or ‘precarious’ workers, such as those in low-income, non-traditional jobs or workers from immigrant or ethnic minority backgrounds in small workplaces
- 70% of workers had experienced at least one potentially illegal or harmful practice at work, such as working unpaid overtime, being physically injured in the workplace, enduring unfair wage deductions, experiencing leave-related difficulties, negative mental health impacts of work and bullying and harassment
Working lives study represents “a real opportunity”
Although the report’s findings “highlight a very real challenge brought by widely distributed issues and harms across the UK,” the Chair of the FWA says they also represent “a real opportunity to work towards a better future, in which workers’ rights are enhanced and widely respected, and breaches are acted on swiftly and decisively.”
Matthew Taylor of the FA added:
“To protect vulnerable workers, we must tackle deliberately non-compliant businesses while helping to achieve a level playing field for good employers through better education and awareness of their employment rights obligations.”
IOSH has welcomed the FWA and even written to Matthew Taylor and the Chief Executive, Lisa Pinney, to advocate for a “prevention-first, intelligence-driven and well-coordinated action to deliver lasting improvements for workers and responsible employers.”
The world’s largest professional health and safety body says fair work is strongly linked to occupational safety and health.
They say that the nature and scale of labour market harms revealed by the latest Working lives research report are “complex” and driven by factors such as insecure work, labour exploitation and modern slavery and often associated with convoluted supply chains.
In a blog post for IOSH News, Ceri Finnegan concludes:
“When jobs and workplaces are well designed and well managed, they can be safer, healthier, more productive and more competitive. They can also help build more sustainable, more resilient organisations.”
Training to support workplace compliance
First Response Training (FRT) is one of the UK’s largest and leading national training providers.
They deliver a wide and diverse range of training for businesses and organisations across all industry sectors and throughout the UK.
Their course range includes statutory, mandatory and specialist training in the fields of health and safety, first aid, fire safety, food safety, manual handling, mental health, neurodiversity, health and social care and more.
Their health and safety training is mapped to UK standards and legislation and follows HSE guidelines. The portfolio includes courses such as Health and Safety, Managing Health and Safety, Risk Assessment, Accident and Incident Investigation, Working at Height, Asbestos Awareness and many more.
An accredited Mindful Employer themselves, FRT’s specialist mental health training courses include Understanding Mental Health, Mental Health Awareness in the Workplace, Managing Stress, Anxiety and Phobias Awareness, Self-Harm Awareness and Suicide Awareness.
They can also provide qualified, approved trainers to deliver accredited Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training courses, including the Adult, Youth and Lite versions.
A trainer from FRT says:
“We believe in creating safer working environments with people who care. This is our vision and central to our services. It means providing training that helps to protect worker health, safety and welfare. This includes their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
“It’s important to learn proactive and positive ways for managing, minimising and preventing workplace harms and to ensure that we regularly undergo essential training in health, safety and welfare across all organisations and industries.
“Organisations also need to work on developing positive workplace health and safety cultures that value and protect workers’ health, safety and wellbeing and promote a good work-life balance which is sustainable long-term.”
For more information on the training that FRT can provide, please call them today on freephone 0800 310 2300 or send an e-mail to info@firstresponsetraining.com.