Employment law protection ‘essential for agency workers’

Posted 04/10/2009

A union has urged the government to strengthen employment law in order to protect temporary and agency workers from being exploited.

Unite has welcomed new legislative commitments to combating mistreatment of this group, but insisted that any such laws must be made “watertight”.

It expressed concern that unscrupulous businesses may attempt to use legal loopholes to maintain their current practices, such as reclassifying agency workers as trainees or self-employed.

Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke therefore called for any employment law amendments to be thorough and backed by a system of severe penalties, as well as demanding that action be taken swiftly.

He said: “Let’s stop pussy-footing around and get the legislation in – and get it in now.”

This comes after the government last week committed £3 million of funding to a new crackdown on the mistreatment and underpayment of migrant workers employed in the UK.