We want to see a system of employment justice that ensures that all workers have access to decent pay, dignified conditions and can seek remedy when needed.
The problem we're trying to solve
A job with a regular income and decent working conditions should enable people to make ends meet. But many working Londoners are trapped in poverty by low pay, exploitative and insecure work. Women, racialised, migrant and Disabled Londoners are more likely to experience exploitation and poverty whilst working.
The current system of enforcement of worker’s rights isn't good enough. People often don't know what their rights are and with almost no legal aid available for employment law, those who can’t afford to pay for advice are excluded from justice.
This needs to change. We need a system where all workers in London have decent pay and working conditions.
How change will happen
Change will happen when workers are supported to challenge wrongs in their workplace. One way this happens is when workers get high quality advice from organisations they trust.
Change can also come through advocacy that goes beyond securing justice for individual workers. This could involve strategic legal work or working with regulators to find better ways to design the employment justice system.
What we will fund
- Employment rights advice. This is advice that focuses on helping people to access their rights at work. We'll support casework, representation and tribunal work. We particularly want to support work to secure unpaid wages and challenge exploitative practices. We'll also support mediation work that ensures settlements.
We recognise that some employment rights advice is delivered as a part of a holistic advice service. We will fund advice services that are not exclusively about employment rights, but only if the overall focus is on maximisation of access to rights of low-paid workers/workers in insecure work.
- Strategic legal work. This is work that goes beyond securing justice for individual workers and contributes to change in law and practice to ensure rights of low paid workers in London. We will fund pre-litigation research or organisations that want to make third-party interventions. We will not underwrite legal costs or court costs.
We encourage all partners funded for employment rights advice to engage with the Employment Legal Advice Network (ELAN) initiative.