Sandra Osborne MP asks local workers ‘are you being treated fairly?’

Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock MP, Sandra Osborne is urging workers in her constituency to tell her if they have suffered poor treatment at work because they are an agency worker.

The call comes as the Government agrees that it will accept evidence submitted to it detailing ways in which agency workers are mistreated.  This follows an on-going campaign by Labour MPs including Sandra and  trade unions to press Government for UK legislation to tackle the abuse of agency workers – and stop unscrupulous employers using agency staff to drive down the pay and conditions of directly employed workers.

Sandra said:
‘I want the workers in my constituency to tell me about their experiences as  agency workers.  For some the flexibility of temporary agency working is a bonus but increasingly there are cases where agency working is the only option on offer and with it comes job insecurity, poorer pay, no holiday and sick pay, and even cases of pay being docked to pay for essential equipment or training.

In this constituency alone there will be hundreds of agency workers, and across the economy there are almost 1.5 million.  The Labour Party, as the party that stands up for working people, has a duty to ensure that every worker is treated equally and can access essential, basic protections.  When agency labour is mistreated or being used to undercut the hard fought pay and conditions of their directly employed colleagues we must challenge this so I appeal to the people I represent to help with this vital campaign.’

Sandra particularly wants to hear from you if you are an agency worker or work where there are agency workers and have encountered:

• Agency workers being paid less money than permanent workers doing the same job
• Agency workers denied holiday entitlement or sick pay
• Long term use of agency workers but no permanent position for them
• Deductions from agency workers’ pay including for equipment, transport or accommodation costs.

If you have a story to tell, write to Sandra at her Parliamentary Office, 139 Main Street, Ayr, KA8 8BX before the middle of May.  The information you provide will be submitted to the Department of Trade and industry as evidence of the need for protection for agency workers.