Agency workers - time for action

By MarshaJane Thompson

As an agency worker myself I agree with UNISON that it is welcome that so many Labour MPs have backed the rights of agency workers
Dave Prentis and other Union leaders met Gordon Brown about this this morning and Dave says that; “Gordon Brown reassured us that he wants to make progress on this vital issue. We need to consider very carefully the best mechanism to achieve this.”Progress? Wasn’t this in the Warwick Agreement in 2004? That committed the Government to support an EU Directive that they’ve been blocking ever since.A recent case involving Greenwich Council in the Court of Appeal demonstrated that, as the law stands, agency workers are denied the rights which the law gives to employees.Lord Justice Mummery spoke about how “a significant move in the direction of the casualisation of labour and the growth of a two tier workforce, one tier enjoying significant statutory protection, the other tier in a legal no man's land being neither employed nor self employed, vulnerable, but enjoying little or no protection, may create social injustice and a festering sense of grievance which would not be satisfactory in the interests of an efficient workforce, a competitive economy, a healthy society or anything else.”Can Labour Ministers put themselves to the left of Appeal Court judges? We don't need "careful consideration" we need employment rights.