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Call to end discrimination against temporary workers
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29/10/2007
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The TUC has called on the Government to support Paul Farrelly's Private Members’ Bill to give agency workers legal equal treatment rights at work, and save one million temporary workers from discrimination in the workplace and ill-treatment by rogue employment agencies.
Part-time and fixed-term contract workers enjoy the same employment rights as permanent staff, but currently employers are free to discriminate against agency workers in terms of pay and basic working conditions. They can hire agency workers on much lower hourly rates than they would pay directly employed workers, and on far worse terms and conditions to do exactly the same job as directly employed staff.
Agency staff miss out on a whole range of benefits such as overtime rates, commission, sickness and maternity benefits and this insecurity has huge implications for their current and future financial position - including the inability to obtain a mortgage. Nearly half of temporary workers (43 per cent, LFS) are aged 21-30, leaving a whole generation of the workforce unable to get on the property ladder or take part in pension schemes.
The TUC also says that nearly every story exposing the bad treatment and exploitation of workers has involved rogue employment agencies, and that there needs to be better enforcement of existing rules and the Gangmaster regime should be extended to other sectors where abuse is common.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “There is nothing wrong with legitimate recruitment agencies providing short-term work for those with short-term availability. But rogue agencies and dodgy practices are now tarnishing the whole sector.
“In particular too many employers are now using agencies to replace secure jobs with reasonable terms and conditions with badly paid insecure agency staff. Far from providing a bridge to permanent work, this runs the risk of creating an underclass of workers who cannot get permanent work, who have no loyalty to employers, and who have to move from part-time job to part-time job.
“TUC research shows that compared to permanent employees, agency workers have very few rights and this lays them open to exploitation at the hands of rogue employers.
“This Government has done much for people at work, but new laws are needed urgently to protect agency workers from ill-treatment. Paul Farrelly's Private Members’ Bill is an important opportunity to introduce decent minimum standards for all. We urge the Government to support the Bill's passage through Parliament.”
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Author
Chris Rowlands
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