By David Scott

I’m sure we’ve all faced difficult situations at work one time or another. Late rotas, lost holidays – as a worker, it can be hard to keep track of what you’re entitled to, and even harder to hold your employer to those rights. Nearly a decade ago, I worked for a fast food chain (which I’ll leave unnamed) and was regularly asked to take my lunch break upon arrival, meaning I’d then work straight through my shift without stopping. This was completely illegal, and I knew that. But it’s hard to argue with your manager when they’re facing a busy shift. So you agree and tell yourself it’s a one-off, even if the requests seem to continue the longer you stay in the job. My story is a fairly minor example compared to the cases our Citizens Advice Bureaux see every day across Scotland. But it goes to the heart of why so many people have a bad time at work. If you can’t enforce your rights in practice, they’re not worth the paper they’re written on.

Scottish CABs gave out just shy of 75,000 pieces of employment advice last year, and our advisers saw some really concerning cases during that time. Furlough was a big issue, with people being paid incorrect amounts or being told they had to work extra hours to ‘pay back’ their furlough. And we saw multiple cases of people who were told to work despite close contact with COVID-19 patients — in some cases even after testing positive themselves. A reminder that breaching workers’ rights can put us all in danger.

And it’s not just in low-paid sectors that employment rights are breached. One CAB told us of a client who was left with no income during a period of long-term illness. When he reported the need for time off, his employer changed his working hours to zero and effectively forced him out of his job. But the client didn’t work in a bar or a café – he worked for a large bank.

You might wonder how companies can get away with this. But employers know they’re in a safe position. With social security payments so low, people don’t want to risk losing their job and their income by causing a fuss – even more so with the cost of living now sky-rocketing. And those who do stand up for themselves can face a lengthy and costly process to get their rights enforced. That’s why tomorrow we’ll be calling for the UK Government to make good on its promise of a single enforcement body for employment cases. This would simplify the process for workers and ensure they can enforce all their rights at work through a single, joined-up process. If we want to see incomes rising and people getting into good and secure jobs, we need to back workers’ rights. A single enforcement body would give people the security to stand up for themselves and ensure bad employers can’t escape scrutiny. The UK Government has been talking about this idea since at least 2019, but in the last Queen’s Speech there was no mention of it. It’s vital that this issue becomes a priority again. It’s the only way to make our pandemic recovery work for everyone.

David Scott is policy officer at Citizens Advice Scotland.