A website is being launched to help freelancers and other workers claim an estimated £3bn a year owed in wages and holiday allowances, in the latest example of justice moving online.
The service, MyPay London, aims to help people who cannot afford to pay lawyers for advice on lodging their claims. Legal aid for employment cases was removed by the coalition government in 2013.
The initiative comes from the Legal Action Group, a charity that promotes equal access to justice and publishes legal aid handbooks. It has been supported by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), which has led the fight for improved workers’ rights in the gig economy.
The site enables claimants to calculate the sums they believe they are owed. A recent survey by researchers at Middlesex University concluded that 2 million British workers were collectively losing as much as £3bn a year in uncollected wages and holiday allowances.
The tool works in a similar way to filling in an online tax return. Claims can then be printed out and presented to employers. It is currently targeted at workers in the capital but is due to be expanded to the whole of the UK.
The Ministry of Justice is eager to transfer minor offences out of the courts into online forums. The lord chief justice, Lord Maldon of Burnett, has suggested using smartphones to communicate with courts. The era of “justice in the palm of your hands” is on its way, he has suggested.
Steve Hynes, the director of the Legal Action Group, said: “Cuts to advice services locally have reduced the availability of free advice to the public from charities such as Citizens Advice and Law Centres.
“With advice related to pay issues, it is difficult to provide services on a commercial basis. Problems such as the non-payment of wages can have a big impact on an employee. The sums at stake are often small and most people on average pay or below are unlikely to be able to afford a solicitor to assist with the problem.”