I’ve been excavating my living room floor and I know that I’ve got to April, since I found the paperwork from the Fem08 conference*, which reminded me that I wanted blog about a report on homework in the UK from the Newsletter of Homeworkers Worldwide, Jan 2008, which reports the result of a survey from 2007. Most of the workers surveyed were paid piece rates, and they averaged £4.41 per hour – well below the minimum wage. “Some were paid as little as £1 an hour.”
Nearly half (48%) were not receiving any employment rights at all. The report says “the law in this area is unclear and inadequate” – and calls for reforms.
What are they doing? Sewing is the most common (23%), then packing and print finishing (22%), followed by delivery and distribution (10%).
The report doesn’t comment on gender, but I very much suspect that this is an overwhelmingly female group, making this very much a women’s issue.
*I try very hard not to pick up paper and new books — I’m trying to go almost entirely electronic — but somehow the cellulose still accumulates faster than I can manage to control it.
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