The
TUC is urging the Government to extend employment rights to all staff and end
the current legal anomaly between workers and employees.
The
union wants the DTI to use its current review of employment status to end the
situation, which it describes as ‘ludicrous’.
The
legal distinction between the two groups means that workers lose out on certain
employment rights because they have a less permanent status.
At
the moment casual staff, home workers, freelancers and some civil servants have
no legal right to unfair dismissal, maternity or paternity leave.
Frances
O’Grady, deputy general secretary at the TUC, said the Government should sign
up to an agreement for full employment rights and fair pay for all employees.
"We
want to see modern workplaces with flexible types of employment that suit the
demands of the modern employer and employee. But less permanent forms of
working are being used as a way of avoiding giving staff decent pay and
protections," he said.
