What we do

NGH estimates that there are around 1 million homeworkers in the UK. The products they produce, package, assemble or process are extraordinarily diverse ranging from clothing, footwear and electrical components through to gift items and greetings cards; many of the items we use everyday. Their work is essential to our manufacturing base and economy. Additionally, people work at home using information and communications technology to provide a range of office support services.

Recent NGH research shows that many industrial homeworkers often work for long hours with tight schedules designed to fit in with the supplier of their homework, not with the homeworker. Many homeworkers still earn rates of pay well below the National Minimum Wage, with NGH being aware of some homeworkers earning less than 50p an hour. While they have little control over the work that they do, many homeworkers are incorrectly classified as self-employed, rendering them ineligible for employment rights such as sick pay, maternity pay, redundancy, pension rights and rights against unfair dismissal. Homeworkers may be working with little, if any, health and safety precautions and information. NGH research suggests that homeworkers from minority ethnic communities are amongst the most disadvantaged in terms of their pay and working conditions.

The problems that homeworkers face are often quite different to their on-site counterparts, such as isolation or questionable employment status. Moreover, the very fact that homeworkers work at home means they are an invisible group. As a result homeworkers’ needs are often not met by service providers or covered by national policy and legislation. NGH was set up to ensure that policy makers and service providers address the needs and concerns of homeworkers.

However, NGH believe that homeworking can and should be a positive choice allowing people to combine domestic and working commitments. NGH successfully campaigned for the inclusion of homeworkers in the National Minimum Wage (NMW) Act 1998. We are currently campaigning towards extending employment rights to all workers in new employment legislation. NGH knows that some homeworkers have benefited from the NMW and the right to paid holidays as a result of our work. NGH believes that homeworking need not lead to low pay and poor working conditions but that it should be should be a viable choice, with equal status to on-site work in terms of pay and conditions.