Employment agency attacks equal pay for temporary workers bill

4:49pm Thursday 28th February 2008

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A CREWE employment agency has attacked a proposed bill on the rights of temporary workers.

Gap Personnel has slammed the new proposals following their second reading in the House of Commons.

Under the Private Member's Bill by Labour MP Andrew Miller, temporary workers would receive equal treatment on pay from day one.

Those opposed to the bill, estimate it will come at the cost of more than 250,000 jobs nationally and affect at least 20% of the regional workforce.

But the Crewe firm's operations director Emma Ceballos said the proposal would not aid vulnerable workers mistreated by unscrupulous employers and would seriously threaten the region's labour-market flexibility.

She said: "It's worth noting that the Bill does not equate to an end to exploitation' - as pointed out during the Parliamentary debate on Friday.

"Unscrupulous employers do not limit exploitation to temporary staff.

"Better enforcement of existing employment law would eliminate many instances of discrimination, and the better regulation of recruitment agencies is already being tackled through the Employment Simplification Bill.

"A small number of recruitment agencies are guilty of exploiting vulnerable workers.

"Why penalise UK industry as a whole by introducing legislation that will ultimately lead to loss of jobs and growth, especially for small businesses?"

She said that agency workers should not get equality with permanent staff until after a year.