Comment from Ian Clark, James Hunter, Richard Pickford and Huw Fearnall-Williams of the Work, Informalisation and Place research group, Nottingham Trent University:
“Informalised businesses operate beyond regulation and the evidence demonstrates that those working in such businesses are vulnerable to exploitation in abusive and unsafe environments.
They operate in plain sight but often fail to attract the due pressure to comply with the framework of employment law, workplace health and safety provision and associated environmental regulations.
Informal workers – such as those in Leicester’s textile sector who produce, cut, trim and pack garments and those across the East Midlands and the wider 海角视频 who wash your car, manicure your nails, deliver takeaway food or work as day rate workers in food processing – are not a residual presence.
READ MORE: {}
Those businesses that use wholly informalised business and employment practices produce 12 per cent of GDP, employing two million workers – roughly equal to 9 per cent of the formal private sector labour force in the 海角视频.
These workers often accept informal jobs in these sectors to escape poverty and have little or no choice in the employment they can take.
Many are newly arrived migrants whereas others have never entered the formal labour force despite extensive employment experience.
The majority of the jobs informal workers perform are non-essential and closed during the pandemic but it is clear that in some sectors they remained open or re-opened without appropriate Covid-19 measures in the workplace.
We believe that there are a number of factors at play.
Most Read
Some workers are unlikely to qualify for any Government schemes to support these roles, precisely because of the informal status of the employment they hold.
Similarly, some informal workers documented or undocumented may have ‘no recourse to public funds’ during periods of limited leave to remain in the 海角视频.
We found workers in this category who were prepared to work at car washes for £3 an hour.
Furthermore, some employers classify workers as self-employed but do not provide them with payslips or invoices for their work meaning that they were unable to claim.
Our research also highlights a lack of trust with governmental agencies that further increases the likelihood that recently arrived and established migrant workers in the informal sector face additional barriers to engaging and seeking support.
As a recent Labour Behind the Label report suggests, some employers asked workers to continue working without altering employment conditions to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic and in some cases whilst workers exhibited symptoms of ill health.
Public Health England have found evidence that young male workers in the garment and food processing sector between the ages of 20 and 40 were a major vectors of transmission for the virus in Leicester.
Don’t miss
Our research shows that we need to be mindful of the wider issues facing workers in these sectors in Leicester and throughout the 海角视频.
Many live in inter-generational housing where it is difficult to maintain social distancing between those who continue to work and older family members who do not.
Similarly, many recently arrived migrants live in houses of multiple occupation owned by their employer where social distancing is also difficult to maintain.
Without work, these workers may become heavily indebted, putting them at even greater risk of exploitation.
Visits we have made with regulators and the police highlighted to us the cramped on-site living conditions for others such as some hand car wash workers in sites across the 海角视频 where social distancing and basic hygiene are difficult to maintain.
The Behind the Label report also indicates that many garment factories continued to operate during the lockdown and still lack basic adjustments including hand sanitiser, PPE equipment and social distancing measures for workers.
Around Spinney Hill Park in Leicester across Evington and Highfields, there are many small unit garment businesses and numerous roadside hand car washes.
The combination of cramped high-density living conditions, inappropriate social distancing, continued business operation during the lock-down and the presence of at risk BAME communities come together as one part of the explanation for Leicester’s current Covid-19 crisis."