Business leaders and unions call for new deal for UK's 1.2 million vulnerable female workers

The TUC's Commission on Vulnerable Employment reveals that 1.2 million women workers are 'trapped in a continual round of low-paid and insecure work where mistreatment is the norm'. The Commission's final report finds that 62 per cent of the UK's two million vulnerable workforce are female. The Commission, set up by the TUC and involving employers and independent experts as well as trade unionists, says Government, unions, employers and consumers must now all play a part in ending exploitation at work. Commissioners say that they were shocked both by the extent of vulnerable work and that much of the poor treatment they found was perfectly legal. The report says that 'employment practices attacked as exploitative in the 19th century are still common today' and that the 'poor treatment at work that we have found should not be tolerated.' The report reveals OECD research showing that the UK has less employment protection than any other advanced economy apart from the USA.