than the sum of the individual risks. Each of these risks can move a worker along the continuum, away from decent work. TOWARDS DECENT WORK Having a job is not the same as having decent work. Decent work means being able to understand your rights, question decisions without fear, receive wages on time, plan your life with some degree of certainty, and leave a job that is unsafe or unfair. Creating these conditions is not solely the responsibility of individual employers or workers. The systems surrounding work also matter. Labour markets, recruitment practices, immigration policies, housing pressures and business models all influence the choices available to workers and the risks they face. As exploitation exists on a continuum, prevention should begin before harm becomes severe. There need to be conditions in which decent work can flourish, with safer recruitment practices, better oversight of supply chains, earlier identification of risks, and a reduction of the barriers that stop workers from speaking up. The creation of the FWA in April 2026 presents an opportunity to strengthen labour market enforcement in the UK and improve coordination across agencies. To move towards decent work and prevent exploitation before it escalates, several changes have been identified: 1.Create a properly resourced Fair Work Agency The FWA, created under the Employment Rights Act, is the UK’s new labour market enforcement body, responsible for detecting, investigating and enforcing breaches of employment law. It oversees compliance with key workplace protections, including minimum wage rules, holiday pay, statutory sick pay and protections against labour exploitation, with the aim of strengthening and streamlining labour market enforcement. The effectiveness of the FWA will depend heavily on it being properly resourced, with sufficient investigatory capacity and funding to carry out proactive and meaningful enforcement. 2.Increase proactive labour inspection and enforcement capacity Our report highlights the need to move away from relying primarily on vulnerable workers to report exploitation and instead strengthen proactive labour inspection and enforcement. Recommending that at least 60% of inspections should be proactive rather than complaint-led. The UK also remains well below the ILO benchmark of one labour inspector per 10,000 workers, limiting its ability to identify risks before harms become severe. 3.Reduce forms of worker dependency Exploitation often develops where workers become heavily dependent on employers for income, accommodation or immigration status. Policies that reduce these dependencies, including safer recruitment practices, secure reporting mechanisms and greater flexibility to change employers, could help strengthen workers’ ability to exercise genuine choice. 4.Strengthen security and predictability at work Decent work requires more than simply having a job. Predictable hours, transparent contracts and reliable pay can reduce uncertainty that pushes some workers further along the continuum of exploitation. Greater stability should not be understood as an employment benefit, but as part of preventing exploitation. 5.Increase accountability across supply chains and recruitment Exploitation often becomes hidden within long chains of subcontracting, outsourcing and recruitment. Stronger accountability for labour conditions across supply chains, alongside better oversight of recruitment practices, could help shift responsibility away from individual workers and towards the wider systems in which work is organised. Preventing exploitation is not only about responding to the most extreme cases once they occur. It is about building labour markets that provide security, dignity and voice before problems escalate. RECOGNISING EARLY WARNINGS Preventing labour exploitation is not only about identifying the most extreme cases once serious harm has occurred. It requires recognising the everyday conditions that increase risk long before they may be noticed. Exploitation can emerge gradually through ordinary pressures that reduce people’s ability to exercise choice. Decent work is more than the absence of abuse. It is the presence of security, fairness and dignity at work. A decent workplace is one where people can ask questions, challenge decisions, report problems and be heard without fearing punishment. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 25 Dr Ophelia Chidgey is a Senior Research Associate in the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business. She is also a PhD graduate from the Department of Management Science in Lancaster University Management School. The report Decent Work: A Review of Evidence for Effective Prevention and Detection of Labour Exploitation, is authored by Professor Jan Bebbington, Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business; Kilian Gaillard, formerly Assistant Economist in the Analysis and Research team at the Office of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement, and now with the Fair Work Agency; and Dr Ophelia Chidgey, of the Pentland Centre. o.chidgey1@lancaster.ac.uk
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