ADD2631 Employment Rights Hub Promotion

1.1 As part of the Mayor’s manifesto commitment to make London a fairer city to work in, the Mayor’s Employment Rights Hub was launched in October 2019. The Hub provides information and signposts to advice for Londoners experiencing a problem at work.

1.2 The GLA-commissioned Survey for London 2021-22 found that 1 in 4 Londoners (23 per cent) did not feel well informed about their rights at work. The large number of people employed in the capital means that as many as 1.1 million Our survey found that this lack of awareness is highest amongst workers who are employed in a routine or manual occupation, experience financial precarity and amongst migrant Londoners or those who speak English as a second language.

1.3 The Employment Rights Hub is a valuable resource to build awareness of workplace rights and provide information to Londoners dealing with problems at work. Since January 2022, there have been nearly 137,000 unique page views, and a total of 288,000 views since its launch in 2019. This makes the Hub a significant source of information for those uncertain about how to enforce their employment rights.

1.4 To continue to meet the need for information about rights at work, we propose to continue paid social media adverts, targeted at Londoners we know are more likely to experience violations of their rights at work, including workers in low-paid and precarious employment and migrant workers. These have previously been a cost-effective way of boosting the promotion of the Employment Rights Hub to Londoners. Ads will be refreshed based on last year’s advert performance and tailored to align with the demographics amongst whom awareness of employment rights is lowest.

1.5 The Hub’s social media promotion for FY 2022/23 was supposed to start in September 2022, but it was interrupted for Operation London Bridge. This Decision Document proposes to sustain the funding for the existing promotional materials of the Employment Rights Hub on social media. The Employment Right’s Hub’s social media promotion is being proposed and led by the Financial Hardship team in Communities and Social Policy, the implementation of the promotional activity will be undertaken by the Digital Communications Team.

2.1 The objectives of this funding are to:

i. promote the Employment Rights Hub to groups of Londoners who are more likely to experience problems at work and/or less likely to know their rights and how to enforce them.

2.2 The outcomes of these activities will be:

i. more Londoners will have greater understanding of their rights at work and how to enforce them.

ii. increased access to free and high-quality information about rights at work amongst financially precarious or migrant Londoners.

2.3 These outcomes will be measured through the number of unique and returning page views    on the Employment Rights Hub tracker. We will use this data to assess the efficacy of the social media campaign, and review after 6 months of active social media promotion.

3.1 Equality is a key driver of the employment rights programme. The Survey for London Polling commissioned by the GLA and carried out by YouGov showed that Black and Asian Londoners in employment are more likely to have experienced problems with time off work and being paid less than the minimum wage. In contrast, higher earners, white respondents and Londoners without a disability are least likely to have experienced a breach.

3.2 Participants who were migrant workers or those who had no access to public funds showed greater hesitancy when we explored the role of external support organisations. The lack of awareness about support available was combined with a suspicion about possible knowledge sharing between government organisations.

3.3 According to the Equality Act 2010, ‘race’, including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin are protected characteristics. As such, our targeted social media promotion will aim to ensure that those who are facing illegal discrimination at work - on the basis of nationality or national origin - are more aware of their rights.

3.4 Given this picture, we are ensuring our online work to promote awareness of employment rights is targeted to benefit groups of Londoners, some of whom exhibit ‘protected characteristics’, who are more likely to experience problems at work. The campaign direct advertisements to three audiences, through the social media targeting platform Meta:

i. A pan-London audience, which aims to capture the higher incidence of employment rights violations in the capital as a whole.

ii. An ‘interest’ specific audience, including the following interests: ‘Entry-level job, Career development, Employment website, Employment agency, Construction, Plumbing, Job fair, Customer Service or Job hunting’. This audience is commonly used by GLA’s media strategists to target Londoners who are on a low income, this is likely to intersect with Londoners who have protected characteristics on grounds of ‘disability’ and race, including disabled and Black and Asian Londoners.

iii. An audience of migrant Londoners whose primary language is a language other than English, or who previously lived outside the UK. Our research suggests, migrant Londoners or those who speak English as a second language are less likely to know their rights at work. This audience will primarily target people who have protected characteristics - around nationality, or national origin.

4.1 Social media promotion of the employment rights’ hub is currently underway. This transfer will reimburse the Digital Communications team for the cost of social media promotion.

4.2 There are no known conflicts of interests or interests to declare associated with this decision.

4.3 The Employment Rights Hub links to Mayoral priorities around business and investment, particularly the Good Work Standard to make London the world’s best city to work in. The Employment Rights Hub gives workers the tools to become aware of their rights and flag discriminatory behaviour in employment relations. The Employment Rights Hub is clearly referenced in GLA materials, including the Good Work Standard, on the Mayoral Website.

4.4 There are few risks associated with the Employment Rights Hub’s social media promotion as it is primarily a resource that employees can draw on at will if they wish to increase their awareness of rights at work. A risk might be that this resource is not easily accessible to Londoners, due to a lack of awareness of its existence. The promotion of the hub on social media aims to mitigate the risk that Londoners do not encounter the Employment Rights Hub.

5.1 Approval is sought for expenditure of £15,000 to continue to promote the Employment Rights Hub. The £15,000 will be transferred from the Low Income and Food Budget of the Financial Hardship Team to the Digital Communications Team to spend on social media promotion of the Employment Rights Hub.

5.2 The total budget for the social media promotion across the 6-month period is £15,000 – from the Financial Hardship Budget. This expenditure of £15,000 will be funded by the 2022/23 CSP Equality & Fairness budget.

5.3 There is sufficient budget in the Low Income and Food Budget of the Financial Hardship Team to fund the expenditure of £15,000 in the financial year 2022/23.