Response to protecting research participants: in defence of Citizens Advice

This article is a response to a critique of our paper, ‘De-collectivization and employment problems: the experiences of minority ethnic workers seeking help through Citizens Advice’, published in this journal in 2012. We feel the author misunderstands the main tenet of the paper (the paucity of individual employment advice and a growing crisis for workers’ rights with the decline in collective union representation) and makes quite strident allegations attacking the methods we used to gather information from our interviewees. We refute these points and particularly the author’s claim that Citizens Advice was a ‘failing organisation’ – indeed our article concluded by making the case that more money should be invested in organisations such as Citizens Advice to provide employment advice.