Political pressure building fast for agency justice

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Telecoms & Financial Services January 24 2018
The CWU’s political campaigning to expose the second-class treatment of around 2,000 Manpower employees working on the BT account is fast gaining momentum with this week’s lodging of an Early Day Motion (EDM) in Parliament.

Within hours of the EDM being tabled by Scottish MP and CWU stalwart Hugh Gaffney on Monday, no fewer than nine MPs had pledged their support for his demand for the abolition of the legal loophole many agencies and their commissioning companies have seized upon to pay agency workers less than directly employed workers performing exactly the same functions.

Hugh – who won the Coatbridge, Chryston & Bellshill constituency for Labour at the General Election – has already established himself as vocal supporter of the CWU’s ‘Close the Gap’ campaign following the launch of the campaign’s political phase just before Christmas.

He was one of 11 MPs who joined a CWU protest in Parliament Square on December 19 – and now his EDM, titled ‘Agency Workers and the Swedish Derogation’ is expected to garner massive support in Parliament.

With the Labour Party already pledged to tackle exploitative employment practices – of which of widespread use of so-called Pay Between Assignment’ (PBA) contracts is just one example – two cross party Select Committees have also recently recommended the scrapping of the so called ‘Swedish Derogation’ on which PBA contracts rely.

The ‘Derogation’, effectively an exemption to the ‘equal treatment’ aims of EU legislation that has been used to justify agency exploitation in the UK – even though it was originally negotiated to protect the exceptionally good terms traditionally enjoyed by agency workers in various Scandinavian countries – has long been highlighted by the CWU in over a decade of campaigning.

Despite numerous approaches to BT and Manpower, around 2,000 agency workers on PBA contracts are still employed long-term in BT call centres, typically being paid up to a third less than directly employed BT staff doing exactly the same jobs.

That scandal is explicitly set out in EDM 833, which reads:

“This House notes that thousands of agency workers in the UK are being employed on Pay between assignment contracts, denying them equal treatment with permanent staff under the Swedish derogation to the Agency Workers Regulations; further notes that this has allowed a hugely profitable company like BT to bring in 2,000 agency workers from Manpower who earn hundreds of pounds less every month than permanent staff for doing exactly the same job; notes that this includes call centre workers handling 999 calls; welcomes the recommendation from the Taylor Review, the BEIS Select Committee and the Work and Pensions Select Committee to close this loophole; and calls on the Government to scrap the Swedish derogation at the earliest opportunity.



CWU assistant secretary Sally Bridge explains: “This EDM provides us with a golden opportunity to really up the ante with regards to our political campaigning for a change in the law that is long overdue.

“Early Day Motions don’t automatically lead to a debate in the House of Commons, but instead provide an important platform where MPs can push important issues right up the political agenda by pledging their support for specific demands for change.

“They are about building awareness and momentum – in this case drawing attention to the fact that huge multinational companies like BT are using agency workers in not just a short term basis, but for long periods of time – on far lesser salaries than directly employed staff conducting exactly the same roles – and that some of those agency workers are paid as little as the minimum wage.

“We need to encourage as many MPs as possible to support EDM 833 and, given that two cross-party Select Committees with in-built Tory majority are already recommending the abolition of the Swedish Derogation, this should not be a big ask.

“As such, I’d urge members right across the country to email or write to their MPs, irrespective of which party they represent, asking them to sign EDM 833 without delay.

“We are also asking branches and members to tweet their MP, asking if they are prepared to support the EDM using the hashtags #EDM833 and #CloseTheGap

“Above everything, however, I’d urge individual agency members on PBA contracts to seek a face-to-face meeting with their MP at their constituency surgery, because there’s nothing like the frank articulation of a clear and absolutely indefensible injustice by an individual constituent to really get MPs thinking.”

[Bazza01]

About time the Union got off their arses and did something about Angard.