Employment agencies found guilty of exploiting workers will face unlimited fines in a crackdown that promises to get tough.
Reported by The Times, John Hutton, business secretary, told the TUC yesterday that the number of employment agency standard inspectors would be doubled to 24 in an attempt to beat rogue agents.
The news comes on the back of an HR Zone report in which Domino’s Pizzas was exposed for exploiting workers in what one union dubbed ‘modern day slavery’. Workers at one franchise were charged £500 for an old car to deliver the pizzas, £700 to insure their vehicles and £100 a fortnight for shabby and tired bedsits. The workers then spend months paying back their debts resulting in minus pay slips.
Hutton said: “Vulnerable workers can be exploited by employers prepared to flout the law, no matter the nature of their employment or which sector they work in.”
Unions welcomed the move but are calling for the government to go further and back the European agency workers’ directive, which calls for the same rights for temporary workers as permanent staff after six weeks of employment at one workplace.
Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, said: “The ministers’ announcements are welcome, but the law also needs to be extended. Crucially, the law should guarantee equal treatment of agency workers and the directly employed.”
Earlier in the week, HR Zone reported on pleas from the Confederation of British Industry urging the government to stand firm against renewed EU and union pressure to resurrect the directive which it says would heavily reduce the benefits of flexibility that such workers offer to firms. According to the CBI, 250,000 temporary jobs would be lost if the directive is implemented.
