Jean Lambert MEP with Polly Toynbee in the European Parliament
Jean
Lambert MEP with Polly Toynbee in the European Parliament
MANY of London's temps are 'underpaid, overworked and trapped in a system that excludes them from even the most basic of working rights and conditions ', London's Green MEP Jean Lambert has warned.
Speaking at a seminar on the EU 'Temporary Agency Workers Directive', Mrs Lambert said thousands of the capital's temps were at risk of betrayal by Government efforts to broker a back-room deal with France and Germany that would deny short-term staff the same basic rights as permanent employees.
"The Temporary Agency Workers' Directive aims to ensure agency-employed workers are guaranteed the same basic minimum rights as full-time and permanent employees," Mrs Lambert told fellow members of the Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee.
"The Government has listened to business demands for increased 'flexibility - often the flexibility to treat temps badly - and has not listened to the thousands of workers currently labouring under poor job security, low pay, long hours, frightening health and safety failures, bullying managers and no representation.
"By failing the listen to the muted voice of those employed by disreputable temping agencies, who are disproportionately women and members of ethnic minority communities, the Government risks maintaining an appalling and discriminatory status quo."
Award-winning social commentator and journalist Polly Toynbee told the meeting 'flexibility' was used an excuse for holding down pay and denying labour rights.
Ms Toynbee, whose book 'Hard Work: Life in Low-pay Britain' examined life in the UK on minimum wage, said: "This casualising culture which has developed since the 1980s has held back improvement and rights have been lost. 'Flexible' has become a wonderfully flexible word and is often used as a way of holding down wages.
Polly Toynbee
"This is an equal pay issue for work that is both necessary and required. There is no reason why these people should not receive the correct pay. It's just plain fair. Temporary agency workers should not be viewed as a short-term commodity but as untapped potential and talent.
"A country which has high employment figures should not look at its neighbours and gloat. Employment figures don't tell the whole story - we must also look at poverty. Today, the gap between rich and poor is getting wider. We must try to ensure that the bottom third at least keeps pace."
Mrs Lambert added: "The current Directive is surrounded by mythology. The central truth is that it offers greater protection for temporary agency workers across Europe.
"There are currently problems with how the law is being implemented in the UK. We know that many people are being forced to sign away the rights that they have, especially those in the poorer sections of society. We look forward to Government action at the international and domestic level."
ENDS
For more information
please contact Ben Duncan on 020 7407 6280, 07973 823358 or at press@greenmeps.org.uk