About CoVE
The Commission on Vulnerable Employment (CoVE) has been established because the well being of any single employee and their family is too important to be left unprotected. The Commission believes it is time to challenge the poor or non-existent employment rights of millions of hard working people in the UK labour force. The time is now right for a major investigation of the causes of, and solutions to, vulnerable employment.
It is impossible to document exactly how many vulnerable workers there are in the UK. This is because some forms of vulnerable employment are very difficult to measure, particularly when they result from illegal employer practice. Survey data are extremely limited. However, given the acknowledged undercounting of people who are working within these at risk sectors, and the incidences of exploitation documented by existing research, the Commission feels it is clear that many millions of workers in the UK workforce are at risk of exploitation – and that it could be as many as 1 in 5.
A large section of the British workforce does not therefore enjoy the same rights at work as the majority. The Commission on Vulnerable Employment will be investigating why this is, and considering what needs to change to ensure that vulnerable employment is challenged.
