Agency job cuts put environment in danger

The Environment Agency in England, where UNISON organises 3,500 workers, is slashing its staff by 15% in the next year. Over 1,700 jobs will be lost as a result of Government funding cuts. Veerle Heyvaert writing for The Conversation blog warns that the ‘environmental and related economic costs of this scale of layoffs at the Environment Agency should be taken seriously. By themselves they are unlikely to sway a government that, regardless of its claimed green ambition, pursues an agenda of environmental deregulation. Yet there are other significant legal and political costs that may have escaped the government’s attention so far but are significant’
http://theconversation.com/environment-agency-staff-cuts-risks-economy-and-reputation-20584

TUC challenges loophole which denies Agency Workers’ equal rights

#TUC13 Today the Trades Union Congress will be taking the unusual step of lodging a formal complaint with the European Commission against the UK government for failing to enforce the European Temporary Agency Workers Directive - which is meant to guarantee equal treatment for temporary staff (in the case of the UK this applies only after 12 weeks continuous employment because of an unnecessary concession by the TUC itself in 2008):
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/sep/02/agency-workers-paid-less-tuc
    The TUC complaint relates to a loophole known as the Swedish derogation, estimated to affect 1 in 6 agency workers, which allows agency workers placed with employers to be paid less than direct employees, provided the agency agrees to continue paying them for at least four weeks at times when it is unable to find them work.

The 12 week qualifying period for Agency Workers Rights - a shameful concession made in Britain

In the original version of his controversial speech yesterday the Labour shadow Immigration Minister Chris Bryant criticised Next PLC for hiring hundreds of Polish seasonal workers ‘to avoid Agency Workers Regulations which apply after a candidate has been employed for over 12 weeks’. The fact that agency workers are vulnerable to exploitation has nothing whatsoever to do with nationality (as a Next spokesperson was quick to point out) but everything to do with the shameful and unnecessary concession granted to employers by the TUC and Labour Government when adopting the EU Agency Workers directive in 2010.

Prospects for Unions in the UK - a slow death or a renewed purpose?

In a week when the Tory right formally launched an advanced guard in its war against trade unions, the laughably named Trade Union Reform Coalition, the BBC has published an insightful on-line feature on the state of the UK trade union movement. Geraldine Healy, professor of employment relations at Queen Mary, University of London, says that the role of unions is of renewed importance during an era of austerity and widening inequality "At the moment there's a really strong sense of injustice in society and people are looking for different ways of reducing that level of injustice. Trade unions are one of the key ways of doing that,"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16609527

Irish government attempts to roll back Agency Workers rights

Unions in Ireland are resisting last ditch attempts to secure their agreement to a six month qualifying period for equal treatment for agency workers (ahead of the 5 December deadline for its introduction). Elsewhere, the EU directive has been applied from day one, apart from the UK where the TUC conceded a 13 week qualifying period in 2008 to the then Labour government: http://www.icem.org/en/73-Contract-and-Agency-Labour/4773-SIPTU-Fights-Attempts-to-Dilute-EU-Agency-Workers-Directive

12 week qualifying period undermines new Agency Workers Rights

Today new regulations come into force giving agency workers no less favourable treatment in pay, holidays and working time. In other EU member states equal rights for agency workers apply from day one. However in Britain the TUC conceded a 12 week qualifying period to overcome the resistance of big business and the (then) Labour Government to the Directive. The Mirror examines the loopholes which this concession will create: http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2011/09/new-law-on-equal-pay-for-temps.html

Beyond belief - Tory rearguard action to block agency workers rights

The Daily Telegraph reports on a mendacious move by Downing Street to renege on the implementation of new rights for agency workers which are due next month: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8743377/David-Cameron-moves-to-water-down-new-EU-job-laws.html

Agency workers rights kick in on 1 October – be prepared!

Back in May 2008 the TUC made concessions (such as a 12 week exemption period) to secure joint agreement with the CBI on the implementation of the Temporary Agency Workers' Directive (EU Directive 2008/104/EC on temporary agency work). Regrettably, in the face of private sector lobbying, the then Labour Government deferred implementation to October 2011 (EU deadline was 5 December 2011).