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Agency worker consultation PCS response July 2009

PCS responded to the government consultation on equal treatment for agency workers in the UK.  
 

We, the TUC and other trade unions sought strong, effective and swift implementation of legislation to give effective rights to this exploited group of workers. The business lobby called for weaker legislation as late as possible.

The government has responded, and conducted a further consultation on regulations. Read our December response. The government is now working on the details of the legislation. Read more about the proposed new equal treatment laws.

Here are the key points in our July submission. Our full response and examples are available, as is the full TUC response, from imogen@pcs.org.uk. You can see the summary of the TUC response on their website and the consultation document on the government website.
 
Thanks to everyone who responded to our survey online or on paper: over 90 of you did and helped greatly in preparing our response. We continue to campaign on the issue, and we welcome information from you.
 
We are now asking agency workers to complete a new survey. Agency workers: tell us about your work. We also want to hear from reps and others about their experience of working with agency workers: please contact imogen@pcs.org.uk 020 7801 2639
 
The information you give us will be important in making sure all agency workers get the rights they deserve. 

Introduction to PCS response to consultation July 2009

Agency workers are exploited. In the experience of PCS they are often used to fill in where government cuts are made but the work must still be done.
 
They often do the same work as permanent staff, often for many years, on lower pay, worse terms and conditions, unequal access to training and with no job security.
 
This has a detrimental impact on them, on their directly employed colleagues, on the workplace and organisation, and on society and the economy as a whole.
 
PCS has been campaigning with and for agency workers to improve their rights and conditions over many years.
 
In preparing for this consultation we conducted a survey looking at the key issues of agency worker employment. We received a good response from across all of the areas in which we negotiate, i.e. the civil service and commercial sector.
 
In this submission we refer to some of the findings and some of the submissions received from members and representatives in relation to the survey and the campaign, in order to illustrate some of the key points in this consultation process.
 
We very much welcome these long overdue measures to give agency workers equal treatment, and we look forward to it coming into force as soon as possible.
 
We don’t believe that the measures go quite far enough, and fear that employers will take steps to avoid the legislation. We urge the government to bring in effective legislation to give these exploited workers a big improvement in their working lives.
 
We strongly endorse the thorough and detailed response from the TUC. Our response concentrates on issues of particular concern to our members.
 

Key points and outstanding concerns in PCS response to the consultation July 2009

 

Who is covered by the proposed regulations?

We want to see a broad definition of agency worker and measures to make sure unscrupulous employers do not avoid the legislation by forcing workers into bogus self-employment, limited company or managed service contract status.
 

What is equal treatment?

We want to see a broad definition of pay which includes all remuneration, and emphasise that all bonuses and performance related pay should be included.
 
We agree that agency workers should have access to statutory and contractual holiday entitlements and believe that they should actually be able to take a holiday rather than receiving payments.
 
We believe it should be an unlawful detriment to penalise an agency worker for taking or requesting leave. We agree that there should be access to employment, facilities and training, and believe that all maternity provisions should be extended to agency workers.
 

How do we ensure that agency workers can get equal rights?

We are disappointed that agency workers have to work for 12 weeks before achieving equal treatment.
 
Many are excluded, including areas we represent, because they work for less than three months in the assignment. But we welcome the proposed definition of these as calendar weeks however many hours have been worked in a week.
 
It is crucial that there are effective anti-avoidance measures. We would prefer to see a long reference period, and a long minimum break to ensure that agency workers are not just laid off and then brought back in order to avoid the legislation.
 
It should be unlawful for an agency worker to be dismissed or removed from an assignment in order to avoid equal treatment rights, and it would be unacceptable to define a new assignment simply because the employer has changed the agency worker’s responsibilities.
 
Agency workers would have to take up a claim of unequal treatment with the agency, but the hiring employer must also provide information.
 
Both the hiring employer and the agency should be liable for a breach of an agency workers rights. The agency worker must have the right to proceed to employment tribunal if it the issue cannot be resolved with the agency and hiring employer.
 
Agency workers need to be able to compare their conditions with those of permanent workers from throughout the organisation or group of linked organisations, and with a hypothetical comparator, as well as looking at pay scales and collective agreements relating to permanent workers in their immediate workplace.
 

Rights to trade union representation

Agency workers should have a statutory right to representation for collective bargaining on terms and conditions.
 
Agency workers should count towards the thresholds in the agency, not the hiring employer.
 
Employers should give full information about agency workers to trade union reps including how they are used, terms and conditions and collective bargaining issues, so that the union can make sure they get equal treatment.
 

When should the regulations come into law?

We want to see this happen as soon as possible and certainly in 2009/2010 as promised by the government, because agency workers need and deserve these long-awaited rights to equal treatment now.
 

What other concerns do we have?

Although the new regulations will be a major step forward for agency workers if implemented properly, they will still not give agency workers full equal rights.
 
They will still have a problematic employment status. We would still want to see occupational pensions and sickness benefits extended to agency workers. Agency workers will still not have the right to a fair disciplinary hearing or the right to raise grievances.
 
The rights to equal treatment should apply from day one of the assignment. Otherwise large numbers will be excluded, and employers will avoid the legislation by ensuring assignments are short.
 
This potential development is recognised in the governments impact assessment as inevitable. We fear this, as terminating assignments early is already a practice to avoid current legislation (or perceived potential impacts of current legislation).
 
We believe it should not be inevitable and that effective measures should be taken to prevent this avoidance.
 
We believe the best way to do so would be to apply the rights to all agency workers from day one, but failing that government must implement effective measures to prevent avoidance of the legislation.