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Agency worker bill 'puts jobs at risk', CBI claims

21/02/2008

Government legislation to protect agency workers will put 250,000 jobs at risk, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned.

The CBI, which represents British businesses, said proper enforcement of existing law is the real challenge facing the government.

The CBI's comments come ahead of the second reading of Andrew Miller's private members bill on temporary agency workers tomorrow, which proposes equal employment rights between temporary and permanent staff.

John Cridland, CBI deputy director-general, said: "Very few temporary workers qualify as vulnerable and even fewer are exploited.

"All are protected by rights covering working time, paid holiday, minimum wage, discrimination and health and safety.

"Any firms that do mistreat their temporary staff are breaking existing rules and deserve to be hauled over the coals. This type of abuse demands more effective enforcement, not a raft of new laws."

But unions disagree and are backing the legislation.

Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, said: "Working men and women are now being viewed as dispensable labour, hired and fired at will, never knowing from one day to the next if they have a job or will earn enough to make ends meet.

"This is not flexibility, it is exploitation. In the last century we fought against this inhumane treatment and we are not going to accept its return today."

According to Unite, there are now around 1.4 million agency workers in the UK.