Martin Caton

Fair Play for Temporary and Agency Workers

There are more than a million temporary and agency workers employed in the United Kingdome, including in the Gower Constituency.  Martin is working in Parliament to improve their situation.

He said, “These workers have fewer rights at work over pay, pensions, overtime rates, holiday and sick leave than other employees.  I have argued for some time that this needs to be rectified through new legislation.

“Last year, I backed a private Members Bill introduced by my Labour colleague, Paul Farrelly MP that would have given this group of workers the rights they deserve.  Unfortunately, it fell by the wayside because there was insufficient time at Second Reading for it to be fully considered.

“Now, we have a second chance, as Labour MP, Andrew Miller, has been successful in the Private Members Bill ballot and has adopted it.  I am pleased to report that I was present to vote for the Bill in the Commons on Friday 22^nd February when it successfully received its Second Reading.  It is now in Committee and I am keeping my Friday diary clear so that I can be in the House to give it my full support when it comes back to the Commons for Report Stage and Third Reading.  I hope, this time, we can get it onto the statute book.

“I know that there are employees in and around my constituency who use temporary and agency workers and are fair and decent in doing so – employing them on terms and conditions equal to those of their permanent staff.  There are others, however, who are prepared to treat agency workers as second-class employees paying low wages and providing poor terms and conditions.

“This is unjust and needs to be put right for the sake of fairness.  But it can also create divisions in the workplace and in communities, when permanent staff feel threatened by being undercut by agency workers.  Now Parliament has the chance to put it right.  We must grab it.”