Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) Order 2018, what steps he is taking to ensure that workers with fragmented working patterns are able to identify that they are being paid at least the National Living Wage if their employer does not provide a clear breakdown of the different types of working time that they are paid for.

The Order ensures time-paid workers know the total number of hours for which they are being paid, by reference to their payslip. If this figure is less than the total hours that the worker has actually worked, then there is a risk of underpayment and we would encourage the worker to raise the issue with their employer or raise a free, confidential complaint with Acas.

The Order’s provisions are in line with the Taylor Review’s recommendation to Government to increase transparency for workers over their employment rights. It fulfils out commitments in the Government’s response to the Review, to extend the right to receive a payslip to all workers and to require employers to state the number of hours being paid for on the payslips of time-paid workers.