The Fair Work Agency launches today, merging the UK's fragmented enforcement bodies into a single agency. It's a once-in-a-generation opportunity, but only if it's done right. ELAN Director Emma Wilkinson sets out what's needed.
The employment rights most of us enjoy have been hard won: the right to feel safe at work, to a minimum level of pay, to holiday pay, to not be exploited.
These are universal rights in the UK, enshrined in law. But employment rights without enforcement are worthless. Too often that enforcement just isn't there, in the face of an overstretched and under resourced system. The figures are stark:
- An estimated 445,000 workers were paid less than the National Minimum Wage in 2025.
- Around 130,000 people are trapped in modern slavery.
- Some 900,000 workers a year have their holiday pay withheld, collectively worth £2.1 billion.
For too many people, particularly those in low-paid, insecure or precarious work, the system meant to protect them simply does not function.
Today, 7 April 2026, the Fair Work Agency launches, representing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change that.
But it will only succeed if it is given the right foundations and focus.
Our growing coalition is clear on what is needed
As director of the Employment Legal Advice Network (ELAN), a network of over 100 not-for-profit organisations dedicated to ensuring that people can access and enforce their employment rights and entitlements, I see the impact of this system every day.
Our members deliver employment and discrimination advice and fight for systemic change for better pay, conditions and rights for London’s most vulnerable low-paid workers.
Two weeks ago, we launched a briefing as part of a coalition of seven partners. It sets out what the Fair Work Agency needs to ensure that it is fit for purpose and works for all.
The briefing includes three simple asks:
- Properly resource the FWA, with enough inspectors, proactive enforcement capacity and a regional presence.
- Ensure the FWA is a safe and trusted enforcement body for migrant workers.
- Publish transparent data, covering inspection activity, enforcement actions, sector-specific patterns and the balance between proactive and reactive work.
The response to that briefing has been powerful. Including the original coalition, the briefing is now supported by more than 30 organisations – ranging from law centres and frontline advice providers, to small community groups, to large think tanks and policy-focused organisations.
The message from across the sector is clear and united: the FWA must be well resourced, trusted by the most vulnerable workers and transparent.
A new FWA without new resources will repeat the same failures
Part of the reason our current system is failing is straightforward: exploitation is too common, and the enforcement bodies don't have the resources to deal with it.
International best practice recommends one labour inspector per 10,000 workers and a 60/40 split between proactive and reactive inspections.
But in the UK, we fall well short of that – in 2023, FLEX reported that we have just 0.29 labour inspectors per 10,000 workers.
The CIPD estimates an additional £300 million per year is needed for the Agency to operate at a meaningful level. Simply merging existing enforcement bodies will not deliver the step change that is needed.
All workers should feel safe to report labour abuse and exploitation
There needs to be recognition that unless the FWA supports access to rights for the most vulnerable then it has failed. In the UK, migrant workers are often the most vulnerable, and most likely to experience employment rights violations.
One in five UK workers was born abroad, rising to 45% in London. Migrant workers keep many of our sectors going, filling vital roles.
But even when they have regularised work entitlements, migrant workers are often not only reliant on their employer for income but also for information about their situation in the UK and any access to advice, information, rights or entitlements.
Work visas usually limit the sector workers are permitted to work in, or which employers they can work for. This is often in addition to other restrictions, such as no recourse to public funds (NRPF).
There needs to be recognition that unless the FWA supports access to rights for the most vulnerable then it has failed.
The result is a dynamic where migrant workers are doubly punished for speaking out - first, by unscrupulous employers who may require them to work unpaid hours, cut their hours or sack them, then by immigration enforcement, for example if their visa is cancelled by their employer or invalidated due to its tie to that employment.
This has allowed for a proliferation of abuses, from non-payment of wages to overwork, and shockingly even to sexual assault amongst a litany of other labour and criminal law violations.
The Fair Work Agency has to create a pathway for reporting whereby workers who have experienced unlawful treatment can seek advice and remedy without fear of being reported to immigration authorities.
The FWA must publish transparent enforcement data
Until the FWA comes into force, enforcement of employment rights is split across three separate bodies, all of which publish their own data.
This makes the picture fragmented – it can be hard to identify gaps, and see where the system is falling short.
The Agency should publish data on inspection activity, enforcement actions, sector-specific patterns and the balance between proactive and reactive work.
Without transparency, there is no accountability. Policymakers, civil society and the public need to be able to see where enforcement is working and where it is falling short.
A once-in-a-generation opportunity that mustn’t be wasted
On the day the new Fair Work Agency is launched, we recognise its potential.
But if it’s going to do more than just continue the same ineffective system we already have, we need ambition, transparency and focus.
Read the full briefing here. If you’d like to find out more or support the briefing, please reach out.