The TUC’s Commission on Vulnerable Employment claims there are 176,000 vulnerable workers in the region who are “trapped in a continual round of low-paid and insecure work where mistreatment is the norm.”

The report says such workers deserve a new deal, and claims that across the country as a whole there are two million such workers.

TUC General Secretary and Commission chairman, Brendan Barber, said evidence from the North was “crucial” in helping the Commission come up with its recommendations.

He continued: “What we heard from local unions and advisers from the Citizens Advice Bureaux and other agencies in the North gave us real insight into the problems experienced by vulnerable workers, and what needs to be done.”

The Commission, set up by the TUC and involving employers and independent experts as well as trade unionists, says Government, unions, employers and consumers must now all play a part in ending exploitation at work.

Treatment

Commissioners claim to have been shocked both by the extent of vulnerable work and that much of the poor treatment they found was perfectly legal.

The report says that “employment practices attacked as exploitative in the 19th century are still common today” and that the “poor treatment at work that we have found should not be tolerated.”

Evidence from a survey of CAB and Law Centre advisers has led to the Commission calling for an increase in funding for advice agencies and more protection for vulnerable workers.

Mr Barber added: “All the Commissioners – whatever their backgrounds – were shocked at just how vulnerable some workers are in Yorkshire and the Humber and the rest of the country today. Their treatment is a national scandal, and we need urgent action. But we have to cut thought the sterile debate that has turned any proposal to help even the most exploited people at work into a pro-union, anti-business old Labour move.

“Good employers have nothing to fear – and much to gain – from policies that stop them being undercut by bad employers who break the law or use loopholes to get round it.”