Unite Viewpoint

Back from holiday last week and I posted that I was pleased to see that at last the Government had seen sense and brokered a deal between the TUC and the CBI on the implementation of the Agency & Temporary Workers Directive. As reported in the press, the deal does not provide for full employment rights from day one, (as we would have preferred) - in fact as we have read - equal treatment comes in after 12 weeks. The CBI are already saying that less than 50% of "assignments" last that long, so it won't affect companies that much. It is being reported that issues such as sick pay and pension are not covered in the equal treatment provision (as yet). The deal is a step in the right direction and will provide protection for many agency workers. As Tony Wooldey our Joint GS said it is a landmark agreement. However, many EU countries (and unions) are looking to equal treatment for agency workers after a 6 week or much shorter period as part of the implementation of the Directive. And it would appear that deal has a trade off on the working time directive allowing countries such as the UK to maintain its opt-out from the 48 hours part of the Working Time Directive. For the printing and papermaking industries, there are already in place a "model" agency workers agreements contained in the Unite - BPIF and Unite - CPI Partnership @ Work Agreements which can easily be picked by companies to provide equal treatment and open and dignified use of agency and temporary workers. These models provide for Unite chapels to be consulted on the use of agency workers, the duration, and most importantly equal treatment. One comment on the deal on Printweek.com's website says: "The industry is run on very tight margins and just cannot afford to pay the higher hourly rate for agency staff for prolonged periods. What businesses will be forced to do is look at other ways to handle the work, whether through cross training, split shifts, longer working hours or outsourcing to other trade houses, which will inevitably reduce the demand for agency work. Well done unions - you've managed to secure better working conditions for your members, but limited their opportunities." The answer to that is that the new national agreement in print provides for extensive flexible working, a wide array of shift patterns - and what is wrong with training the workforce??? I want to be clear. Not all agencies are cowboy outfits, not all companies treat agency staff badly. Unite accepts that in industries such as direct mail and marketing and in magazine printing there is a need for the use of temporary workers at peak times, for fulfillment and other urgent needs. There has been a clause in our agreements with employers going back years that provided for the use of temporary staff. But let us be clear, we have examples of some agency workers, working for the same company, doing the same job as permanent staff and getting less pay, longer hours, shorter holidays, no shift or overtime pay or premiums, no sick pay, no pensions, week in week out, not for 12 weeks but for longer than a year. Our own research showed that some companies use agency and temporary workers as a replacement workforce - for permanent, well trained workers, sometimes in an exploitative manner and as cheap and dispensible labour. Last year Unite members at Harper Collins in Glagow threatend to go on strike to curtail the almost wholesale replacement of permanent jobs with agency/temporary work. As one cynical employer told one of our officials recently "Why train anybody when I can get workers from Poland to do the job as and when I like". I don't think we have limited our members opportunities either. Those agency workers who have joined our union, in the graphical industry have done so for some protection and for help. In a number of companies we have reached agreement to turn temporary/agency positions into a number of permanent full time "flexible" staff, which has provided a benefit for those staff gaining full time employment and for the company in gaining the flexibilty they need - in agreement with our union. Those ex-agency staff are pleased with these agreements as they provide for permanent employment and all that comes with it. We have offered this to other employers, however they have chosen to stay with agency workers on the basis that they are easier to get rid of. We shall see, as they say.......