UCATT & Unite lobby of parliament against umbrella companies
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Frances O’Grady’s speech for the UCATT & Unite lobby of parliament against umbrella companies, Wednesday 26 November. |
Brothers and sisters,
I am incredibly proud to bring greetings and solidarity from the TUC.
Proud to offer our 100 per cent support to this brilliant campaign by UCATT and UNITE.
And proud to speak up for construction workers being sold down the river by these shameless, devious, profiteering umbrella companies.
This is the construction industry plumbing new depths.
The unacceptable face of capitalism.
And today let our message go out loud and clear: end this exploitation and end it now.
When it comes to casualisation, where construction leads other industries inevitably follow.
So this is a fight trades unionists simply have to win.
As UCATT’s excellent report makes clear, building workers are being ripped off and maltreated in their thousands.
Offered no choice but to sign contracts with these disreputable firms.
You know better than me what the implications are.
Having to pay your employers’ national insurance.
Seeing your holiday pay rolled up into weekly pay.
Witnessing unfathomable deductions from your wages.
Paying ridiculous service fees.
Then watching your take-home pay shrink by as much as £120 a week.
And the upshot of all of this?
Highly-skilled workers – chippies, sparks, brickies – having to live on the minimum wage.
All are having to work long hours just to make ends meet.
Many are being forced onto zero hours contracts.
And some are suffering stress from not knowing where their next pay cheque is coming from.
Let’s be clear:
Umbrella companies mean more casualisation, fewer rights and lower pay.
They have no place in a modern industrial economy.
And they must be stopped.
What we’ve done is replace bogus self employment with bogus employment.
And it’s not just building workers who are paying the price.
This is an unwelcome trend that affects us all.
Blatant tax dodging by these firms costs the Exchequer the thick end of £4,000 per worker per year in lost revenue.
That’s a lot of money that isn’t going to our schools, hospitals and councils.
And their cynical attempts to evade pension responsibilities could cost the taxpayer a fortune as workers are condemned to retire into poverty.
So the evidence is clear: umbrella companies are bad for workers and bad for Britain.
As UCATT’s motion to this year’s Congress made clear, we need to take urgent action to eradicate this menace.
Today I challenge the government to put in place tough measures to stop umbrella companies getting away with daylight robbery.
So what can we do?
Well, here’s a few suggestions from me.
One: change the law so agencies and employers have to employ workers directly with proper contracts.
Two: pay workers an agreed hourly rate with no sneaky deductions.
Three: introduce a legal duty to make all payment arrangements transparent.
Four: introduce a new obligation to reimburse travel and other expenses.
And five: ban the rolling up of holiday pay once and for all.
The point is this: there’s plenty that could be done and should be done.
The TUC will continue to press ministers to tackle the scourge of umbrella companies.
We will continue to urge Labour to put decent work at the heart of its 2015 manifesto.
And we will continue to work with UCATT and Unite to make a difference on the ground.
A couple of weeks ago my colleague Paul Nowak visited the Nottingham tram extension scheme.
One of the biggest construction projects in the Midlands, employing over 1,500 operatives at its peak.
There he discovered how UCATT has negotiated agreements with contractors to remove some of the worst aspects of umbrella companies.
For example workers are now protected from unwanted payroll fees.
A small step forward, for sure.
But a positive one all the same.
And one that needs to be replicated right across your industry.
Brothers and sisters, I’ll finish on this note.
This is a fight we have to win.
Ultimately it’s not about the small print, nor about the complexities of how umbrella companies work.
It’s about the right to decency and dignity at work.
Not just for building workers, but for all working people.
So let’s stand up for what we believe in.
Let’s stop these profiteers in their tracks.
And let’s win justice for Britain’s construction workers.
Thanks for listening.