'I worked a 45-hour week for £35'

Zoo York Tiny Cracker Board Shorts (Black)

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Zoo York Tiny Cracker Board Shorts (Black)100% polyester

People who work from home are losing out on pay and employment rights, with some earning as little as 73p an hour, the TUC has said.

BBC News Online spoke to one woman who worked for the same firm for seven years until it transferred work to China without warning.

Enid, who lives in South Wales, received £35 to £55 for a 45-hour week making an average 1,800 Christmas crackers.

She received weekly "kits", made up of cracker boards, bangers, hats, toys and jokes, assembled the crackers using glue, put the novelties inside, and boxed them.

The crackers then sold for between £5.99 and £9.99 for a box of 10.

"We had a leaflet through the door advertising homeworking so I phoned to find out about it," says Enid, 60.

Constant mess

"I thought it would be something for me to do and the money would come in handy to supplement my widow's pension.

"I did enjoy it but I wouldn't do it if I had the time again."

Enid complains of the constant mess in the house, with the materials taking up the whole of her back room.

She is also disappointed that she was never told she could have claimed holiday or sick pay.


I wrote to the factory about back pay after finding out I had been underpaid but did not receive a reply
Homeworker Enid

Homeworkers 'exploited' by firms
And when the company decided to transfer work to China, Enid was never even informed her work was coming to an end.

"I had the last kit in October last year," she recalls. "I'd told them it might take me a fortnight to finish it as I'd been in hospital to have a breast removed.

"After a week they phoned and said they would send a driver to pick up what I had done. This was November and usually we would still be making the crackers until about a fortnight before Christmas but no other kits arrived.

"Towards the end of January we would usually get a letter thanking us for our work the previous year and a new kit but I never heard anything. I rang the outworkers phone line but it had been cut off.

"A member of the National Group of Homeworkers (NGH) eventually got in touch with me and told me about the move to China.

"I wrote to the factory about back pay after finding out I had been underpaid but did not receive a reply. The NGH is now fighting the case for me."