This International Workers’ Day, we’re reminded of the urgent need to put human rights at the heart of work in the UK.
While 1 May is often celebrated with messages of progress and solidarity, the reality for many workers across the country is far from fair.
Today the UK finds itself at a crossroads. Long-awaited employment reforms are on the horizon — including provisions in the upcoming Employment Bill aimed at addressing insecure and precarious work conditions. For example, these reforms propose introducing more day one rights and taking steps to end exploitative zero-hour contracts.
The UK Government is also consulting on how to introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting. Additionally, the recent increase in the minimum wage – which, for the first time, takes into account the cost of living – signals a clear opportunity for progress.
But reforms alone are not enough. As the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN CESCR) highlighted in its recent concluding observations on the UK, these changes must be grounded in a rights-based approach that guarantees fair, secure, and decent work for all.
While the UK Government argues that its ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’, starting with the Employment Bill, will deliver many needed improvements, the detail matters.
How these policies are defined, implemented, and enforced in practice will be critical. For example, the proposed ban on the use of ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contract has been criticised as complex and unclear and it does not amount to a ban on the use of precarious work arrangements, which is likely to limit its usefulness for workers in practice.
The UK’s commitment under international law — particularly the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights — requires not just headline reforms, but effective protections that are accessible, equitable, and enforceable in both law and practice. The UN CESCR’s recommendations should not be viewed as isolated criticism, but rather as a framework to ensure that employment reforms meet international human rights standards.
At Just Fair, we support the UN CESCR’s call to guarantee the right to work, and the right to just and favourable working conditions, both in law and in practice across the UK.
These are not abstract rights — they speak directly to people’s everyday lives: whether you can afford rent, whether you are safe at work, whether your employment contract protects or exploits you.
This Workers’ Day let’s remember that rights at work are human rights.
Through its ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the UK has committed to ensuring decent, secure, and fairly paid work for all. UN CESCR concluding observations offer a clear blueprint for how to move forward.
We call on the UK Government to ensure that employment reform is not just well-intentioned — but truly transformative, rights-compliant, and capable of delivering security and dignity for every worker.
Background image by Milena Filipova
