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date: 30 November 2007

embargo: 00.01 hrs 3 December 2007

TUC urges Government to agree new deal for agency workers

As the TUC publishes new evidence of the abuse of migrant workers by employment agencies, the TUC is today (Monday) calling on Gordon Brown to break a longstanding European deadlock and agree a new deal for agency workers at a crucial EU meeting on Wednesday. So far the UK Government has been part of a blocking minority that have stopped moves by the majority of EU member states to ensure agency workers are treated the same as permanent staff doing the same job.

In advance of a meeting of the EU Social Affairs Ministers on Wednesday
(5 December) the TUC has joined with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Scottish TUC and the Wales TUC to call on both the UK and Irish governments to end their opposition to the Directive.

The European Council has been discussing a new Directive on Agency Workers since 2002, which would give temps in the UK the right to equal treatment with a comparable permanent employee on issues such as pay, working time and holidays, maternity rights and protection against discrimination. The majority of EU states back these proposals. However, the British Government, in a minority with the Irish, German and Danish governments, is standing in the way of the Directive being adopted.

The TUC is concerned about the vulnerability of all agency workers in the UK with their current lack of rights in employment law. Most EU states - both old and new - have introduced individual measures giving temps equal rights in advance of the Directive, but the UK Government has refused to do this.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'There is a perfectly legitimate role for employment agencies in providing workers with short-term availability to employers with short-term needs.

'But t oo many unscrupulous bosses are replacing permanent staff - with reasonable terms and conditions - with insecure agency staff. They regularly earn less than directly employed staff , are not allowed to benefit from an employer's contributions to a pension scheme, are given less holiday, little if any access to training, and tend to get no contractual sick pay. There is a new underclass of temps who cannot get permanent work and who have no loyalty to their employers.

'But there is a simple solution to this problem - the Directive, which most of the EU is now backing, could give UK temps new rights to equal treatment from the first day they are taken on. Day one rights would also avoid the danger that unscrupulous employers would get round the law by taking on temps for one day short of the qualifying period.

'Agency workers have been vulnerable to real injustice for far too long. The Government should understand the strength of union feeling on this issue. There will be a political price to be paid if the UK government simply follows the business agenda - and not the social justice agenda - and they fail to grasp this new opportunity to break the EU deadlock.'

To coincide with the meeting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, the TUC has produced a new report 'Migrant Agency Workers in the UK'. The report looks at the treatment of migrant workers by employment agencies in the UK, and presents hard evidence of widespread mistreatment. It demonstrates clearly the importance of an EU Temporary Agency Worker Directive to promote equal treatment for all agency workers.

CASE STUDIES FROM THE REPORT:

- Danute from Lithuania was working as an au pair on 1 May. She decided to look for other work but was refused jobs several times because she did not already have a National Insurance number. Having sought advice from the TUC, she was able to point out that her passport was sufficient identification to establish a right to work in the UK. She then found work with an agency who placed her in a large distribution depot in London, working on a contract for a major high street retailer. Although she was glad to leave her previous job, which was low paid and provided little independence, she immediately encountered problems. She was charged £5 per week for receiving payment by cheque. Her contract from the agency failed to specify an hourly rate, and she found that while she had been verbally offered £5.25 per hour, she was actually paid only the minimum wage of £4.85 (rate in force at the time).

- Lech is one of a group of about 60 welders recruited from Poland by a Midlands engineering company making components for motor vehicles that has complained in the past of a local shortage of skills for the type of welding used. The welders are employed by an agency, which means that they are paid £1 per hour less than the permanent workforce, have little job security (some are already reported as having gone back to Poland), and are not included in pension arrangements. It is unclear to local unions why this should be if there is such a shortage of skills. Unions are also concerned that this casualisation of the job will deter local people from training in welding. Using the TUC's translated material on employment rights, local unions are approaching the workers to seek to recruit them and to ensure that parity of pay and conditions is being observed.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- For a copy of the Council of the Isles statement, or the 'Migrant Agency Workers in the UK' contact the press office. You can also read the report here.

- In May the TUC launched a Commission on Vulnerable Employment to investigate the extent of workplace exploitation and consider improvements to the enforcement regime and legal protection available for vulnerable staff . Exploited workers, including agency workers, can submit their experiences of working in the UK to www.vulnerableworkers.org.uk

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Register for the TUC's press extranet : a service exclusive to journalists wanting to access pre-embargo releases and reports from the TUC. Visit www.tuc.org.uk/pressextranet

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Elly Brenchley T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07900 910624 E: ebrenchley@tuc.org.uk

Press release (1,100 words) issued 3 Dec 2007