A
TUC call for the Government to extend full employment rights to all workers by
closing the legal loopholes around minimum protection at work has been attacked
by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).
Statistics
show that as many as nine million UK workers could be losing out on employment
rights because they don’t legally qualify as ’employees’.
Groups
including casual staff, home workers, freelancers, agency staff and those on
zero hours contracts are only considered to have ‘worker status’ and as such
aren’t entitled to rights such as unfair dismissal rights or family-friendly
hours.
TUC
general secretary elect Brendan Barber said it was often the most vulnerable
and low-paid staff that missed out on employment rights and many were female,
black or Asian.
But
the REC’s director of external relations Marcia Roberts said: "The TUC
fails to understand that its proposals would cut off a key route people use to
enter the workforce by making the use of temporary workers less attractive to
employers. Some 500,000 temporary workers gain full time work each year through
this route.
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"Criticising
temporary work as a ‘second tier’ sort of employment is simply an insult to
temps. The TUC wishes to protect insiders to the labour market at the expense
of outsiders and still believes that the only valuable job is full-time and
permanent."
