Ed Miliband’s recent speech on welfare has caused an outrage among contractors, temporary workers, and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), who say that the Labour leader needs to get his facts right.
REC Chief Executive Kevin Green, has said that while the professional body for the recruitment industry agrees with certain elements, such as welfare change that delivers good jobs and employment prospects, they believe that he needs to focus on ‘the real issues impacting compliance in the sector’.
One of the comments that have angered the REC the most is Ed Miliband’s suggestion that agency workers are being used to undermine the pay and conditions offered to permanent staff.
Kevin Green explains, “This oblique reference to the AWR is not based on fact and is particularly galling for our industry as it was the last Labour government that was responsible for writing the UK Agency Worker Regulations.
“The vast majority of agency workers are either receiving full equal treatment with permanent employees after 12 weeks, or are being permanently employed by their agencies and receiving full employment benefits plus additional payments when they are not working as part of that arrangement.”
He continued, “Ed Miliband and Labour should be focusing on the real issues affecting agency workers and the recruitment industry – top of which is the exponential growth of unregulated employment intermediaries that facilitate the use of tax, NI and VAT avoidance schemes throughout the labour market.”
Lisa Keeble is the Managing Director for Contractor Umbrella Ltd, one of the UK’s Most Respected Umbrella Companies and founder member of AllUmbrellaCompaniesAreEqual.
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