:00:15. > :00:22.First tonight: a BBC London investigation exposing a cosmetics
:00:23. > :00:24.chain exploiting its staff, some of whom are earning
:00:25. > :00:26.the equivalent of ?2 an hour - significantly less
:00:27. > :00:33.They're also denied worker benefits such as sick or holiday pay.
:00:34. > :00:35.Our undercover filming shows the company gets round this
:00:36. > :00:37.by insisting staff sign a contract saying they're self-employed
:00:38. > :00:39.even though they're treated as employees.
:00:40. > :00:50.BC London's been investigating a company operating in some of the
:00:51. > :00:51.UK's most prestigious shopping locations.
:00:52. > :00:53.We found workers seemingly paid below the minimum
:00:54. > :01:08.In what is called bogus self employment.
:01:09. > :01:10.This manager tells our undercover researcher that to
:01:11. > :01:20.work at her company she must be self-employed.
:01:21. > :01:23.Soap Co, with no connection to other friends with similar names,
:01:24. > :01:26.sells skin products from the Dead Sea in outlets at the Westfield
:01:27. > :01:29.shopping centres, and at their high end Sakare stores
:01:30. > :01:35.We heard they were treating staff badly.
:01:36. > :01:37.Our undercover researcher, Clara, will go and work for
:01:38. > :01:55.Self-employed people should have the freedom
:01:56. > :02:08.to choose when they work, but here, it's a mandatory schedule.
:02:09. > :02:13.They have to be at work for around 60 hours, six days a week.
:02:14. > :02:22.Do you know if we can take days off on the weekends?
:02:23. > :02:29.A self-employed person would ordinarily be free to
:02:30. > :02:32.do the work or not do the work on a given day.
:02:33. > :02:38.And that's not what we saw was happening here.
:02:39. > :02:42.And they are highly controlled, with penalties
:02:43. > :03:05.for not cleaning properly and using their mobiles.
:03:06. > :03:08.Some of the workers Clara speaks to our exhausted and
:03:09. > :03:30.This woman from Bulgaria, like many of the workers here, was
:03:31. > :03:33.recruited from abroad with the offer of accommodation and a job.
:03:34. > :03:41.When people are pushing you and the stress you every day,
:03:42. > :03:45.six days, 12 hours, you are under stress all the time.
:03:46. > :03:48.I was thinking that I will come to do something
:03:49. > :03:52.with my life, and after that, and became...
:03:53. > :04:02.By claiming staff are self-employed, this company avoids
:04:03. > :04:05.having to pay a whole host of in work benefits.
:04:06. > :04:08.Such a sick and holiday pay, and the minimum wage.
:04:09. > :04:13.When Carla collects her first pay packet, it is well under the
:04:14. > :04:17.national minimum wage for the hours worked.
:04:18. > :04:21.For 90 hours, I've received, like, ?200.
:04:22. > :04:35.Which makes it, like, ?3, less than ?3 an hour.
:04:36. > :04:42.This is false self employment, and this is
:04:43. > :04:47.much more an employment relationship than any I have seen, but
:04:48. > :04:55.unfortunately, quite an exploitative employment relationship.
:04:56. > :04:58.This is the owner of Soap Co in Finchley with his
:04:59. > :05:00.sister from our undercover recording in charge of day-to-day operations.
:05:01. > :05:04.There are two other owners from America and Israel.
:05:05. > :05:07.In a statement, Soap Co said they took the
:05:08. > :05:13.responsibilities under UK law very seriously.
:05:14. > :05:19.They said, "we are therefore extremely concerned to
:05:20. > :05:20.about the company's working arrangements.
:05:21. > :05:22.As a consequence, we are reviewing those
:05:23. > :05:26.allegations and the implications, if any, regarding the employment status
:05:27. > :05:30.We also asked these two managers about their
:05:31. > :05:32.understanding of the working relationship here, but they didn't
:05:33. > :05:42.Soap Co work in London's top shopping locations, but
:05:43. > :05:44.there are big questions for customers with skincare products of
:05:45. > :05:48.the working relationship with their staff.
:05:49. > :05:53.Our political correspondent, Karl Mercer's here.
:05:54. > :06:00.Do we have a sense of whether this could be wider practice? Yes, I
:06:01. > :06:04.think it is. Maybe not on this scale but I have been speaking to
:06:05. > :06:06.employment lawyers and unions this afternoon and they very much
:06:07. > :06:10.recognise the sort of things Guy skas talking about in that report.
:06:11. > :06:14.Maybe not concentrated in one firm as we saw there. We talked about
:06:15. > :06:20.self-employment and the unions were saying they think there is an
:06:21. > :06:24.epidemic, how it was described to me, going on, particularly coming in
:06:25. > :06:31.the care sector, not just with taxi firms, not just in retail, not just
:06:32. > :06:36.in food delivery companies, but very much in the care sector, and one
:06:37. > :06:41.union the GMB saying they had ten major legal cases going on at the
:06:42. > :06:42.moment. This comes on a day, a Government-commissioned review
:06:43. > :06:44.recommends fairer contracts for workers? The Mathieu Taylor report
:06:45. > :06:51.looking at modern working practices and very much covered a lot of this
:06:52. > :06:55.self-employment stuff, so-called gig economy, making big recommendations
:06:56. > :07:01.saying we should look at things like sickness and holiday benefits for
:07:02. > :07:04.workers, we should look at an enhanced minimum wage, better
:07:05. > :07:08.enforcement from Government to make sure people were being looked after
:07:09. > :07:13.OK and that would reap benefits for Government, maybe higher taxes
:07:14. > :07:17.because the employers would have to pay National Insurance. How has it
:07:18. > :07:22.gone down? The unions say this report doesn't go far enough. Some
:07:23. > :07:25.of the big companies saying - yes, we are willing to work with you,
:07:26. > :07:29.but, don't hit that flexibility, which many of the workers like and
:07:30. > :07:30.don't hit possible growth. OK, many thanks, Karl.
:07:31. > :07:32.The capital's tech sector has attracted more investment
:07:33. > :07:38.than any other European city since the Brexit vote.
:07:39. > :07:40.But there are concerns that this could change once we
:07:41. > :07:43.As Katharine Carpenter reports, one council is taking steps
:07:44. > :07:45.to maintain London's status in tech innovation.
:07:46. > :07:47.It's got table football, the quirky office mascot
:07:48. > :07:53.The education technology company, Fire Fly in west London
:07:54. > :07:58.has all the hallmarks of a growing tech business.
:07:59. > :08:01.But here in Hammersmith and Fulham they want to see a lot more of this.
:08:02. > :08:04.The council wants the borough to become a centre for
:08:05. > :08:08.But attracting talent here and retaining it has become
:08:09. > :08:11.all the more challenging since the EU referendum.
:08:12. > :08:13.Particularly with so much competition now from
:08:14. > :08:22.So while the French President's offering fasttrack visas for tech
:08:23. > :08:25.employees, west London's offering this - an innovation campus
:08:26. > :08:28.at White City, the centre-piece of an industrial strategy.
:08:29. > :08:32.If you came here, you would find a local authority that was genuinely
:08:33. > :08:43.Don't want to get in your way, they want to support you,
:08:44. > :08:45.give you access to finance, get you affordable,
:08:46. > :08:50.East London's silicon roundabout has had success with similar pledges
:08:51. > :08:52.but tech is lucrative and it is hardly surprising the west
:08:53. > :08:56.Last year, ?2.2 billion was invested in London's digital tech business.
:08:57. > :08:59.It creates around 300,000 jobs and the capital gives birth
:09:00. > :09:08.thinks it might have the edge thanks to the huge brains and innovation
:09:09. > :09:17.Our first purpose, from Imperial College's point
:09:18. > :09:20.of view, is to to create facilities and the spaces for the most fabulous
:09:21. > :09:23.ideas to be developed and turned into life and put out for a society
:09:24. > :09:27.The founders of Fire Fly have their big idea
:09:28. > :09:32.They say the biggest draw west is flexibility.
:09:33. > :09:37.One of the reasons we've taken a long-term decision to be in west
:09:38. > :09:41.London is that there is actually more office space and a wider range
:09:42. > :09:44.of office space as we have grown from two people when we started
:09:45. > :09:46.here in Hammersmith, to 50 to 100 people next year,
:09:47. > :09:50.there's a wider range of options for us to do that in west London.
:09:51. > :09:53.So now it's up to west London to deliver and take on the east,
:09:54. > :10:04.And leave you with Jay Wynne for a check on the weather.
:10:05. > :10:13.. Good evening. It was one of those days at Wimbledon today. The covers
:10:14. > :10:18.on the outside courts. The rain was heavy at times. Thank goodness for
:10:19. > :10:21.the roof. We saw some heavy rain at times through the afternoon and
:10:22. > :10:26.through the evening but, of course, it's good news for the gardeners out
:10:27. > :10:31.there. Still extensive rain overnight tonight. It is on the
:10:32. > :10:34.move, slowly working its way ever-southwards and eastwards but
:10:35. > :10:38.there will still be some rain left by dawn, by which stage temperatures
:10:39. > :10:42.around about 13, 14, maybe lower than that towards the north and west
:10:43. > :10:44.of our area. The rain, through the morning,
:10:45. > :10:49.doesn't last too long, it'll clear quick lane -- quickly and then the
:10:50. > :10:54.cloud will soon fool and brighten up for a lovely afternoon. A much
:10:55. > :10:58.better day at Wimbledon. Dry, bright and good spells of sunshine. Not
:10:59. > :11:01.particularly windy either. We should get a full day's play. Into
:11:02. > :11:02.Thursday, pretty decent weather again and a decent day
:11:03. > :11:05.Thursday, pretty decent weather again and a decent day to end the
:11:06. > :11:13.week. Good evening, a Dave heavy rain
:11:14. > :11:21.across some parts of England and Wales. It starts in the south-west
:11:22. > :11:26.and across Wales where we have seen over an inch of rainfall which
:11:27. > :11:28.continues to push eastwards. Day 8 of Wimbledon and rain stopped play
:11:29. > :11:29.across