date: 4 August 2008

embargo: 00.01hrs Tuesday 5 August 2008

TUC response to BERR Vulnerable Workers Forum report

Responding to the Department for Business (BERR) Vulnerable Workers Forum report today (Thursday), TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'This provides a welcome response to the TUC's Commission on Vulnerable Employment. As the TUC's Commission recommended, the Government has decided that its internal workings need to be significantly streamlined if they are to offer genuine help to vulnerable workers. But an opportunity has been missed to address the legal and regulatory flaws which keep two million workers in conditions which shame a modern economy.

'The Government is acting on important recommendations that the TUC has made. Enforcement agencies such as the Health and Safety Executive and the minimum wage enforcement unit of HMRC will be allowed to share data; there will be a single telephone access point for vulnerable workers to raise problems; and there will be a new body to co-ordinate the work of the agencies - although it is disappointing that it will have no power to make recommendations new rights or policy changes. Ministers have accepted the need for an information and awareness campaign for workers and employers on basic rights at work.

'With new EU moves on agency working and working time and changes on migrant domestic worker visas, these are worthwhile changes won by union campaigning that will make a real difference to many vulnerable workers whose employers are breaking employment law.

'But there are also gaps. It is disappointing that ministers are not prepared to extend the coverage of the Gangmasters' Licensing Authority (GLA) to cover other vulnerable sectors such as construction, care and hospitality. The GLA is cleaning up the agriculture and food sectors it covers, and good employers in those sectors have welcomed the assurance that they will not be undercut by the rogue agencies and gangmasters.

'Nor has the Government been prepared to examine the legal loophole that deprives many workers from gaining the legal status of an employee, which stops their entitlement to many rights and allows an employer to sack them with no comeback if they attempt to enforce the limited rights they enjoy.

'But this package represents progress in our campaign for better protection for vulnerable workers. We will carefully monitor its development, and its publication will encourage unions to step up the campaign for the full implementation of the recommendations from the Commission on Vulnerable Employment.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

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Press release (600 words) issued 5 Aug 2008