{"id":17687,"date":"2019-03-28T15:48:35","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T15:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=17687"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:57:07","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:57:07","slug":"agency-workers-loophole-underpaid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=17687","title":{"rendered":"Agency worker rights delay"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Tory ministers have been accused of \u00e2\u20ac\u015bover promising and under delivering\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 after the closing of a loophole that allows agency workers to be underpaid was delayed for a further two years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The delay was exposed by Labour MP Stephanie Peacock on Monday (March 25) after she submitted a written question to the government on the matter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It makes a mockery of business secretary Greg Clark\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s promises earlier this month to reconsider the timing, as well as Theresa May\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempts to woo Labour MPs to support her Brexit<\/a> deal with pledges on workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although agency workers<\/a> are supposed to receive equal treatment with permanent staff, bosses can weasel their way out of the regulations by using \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpay between assignment\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 contracts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The loophole means that agencies can be classed as the employer even if staff members are permanently located in one workplace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s website states that workers on such contracts are \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnot entitled to equal pay\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 with workers who are employed directly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bosses use the loophole to rip off their workers to the tune of \u00c2\u0141173m a year, analysis by the Resolution Foundation shows.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In response to Peacock\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s question, junior business minister Kelly Tolhurst confirmed that the closure of the loophole is being deferred until the 2020-21 tax year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Peacock said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Prime Minister keeps asking us to trust her but once again she has shown exactly why we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe simply can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take their word for anything, let alone on an issue as important as our fundamental rights at work<\/a>.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last year it was revealed that BT was using the loophole to underpay thousands of call centre workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c resulting in them being paid around \u00c2\u0141500 a month less than their colleagues on full time contracts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe burning injustices the government promises to extinguish will continue burning brighter for longer for agency workers, thanks to ministers over promising and under delivering.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tory ministers have been accused of \u00e2\u20ac\u015bover promising and under delivering\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 after the closing of a loophole that allows agency workers to be underpaid was delayed for a further two years.   The delay was exposed by Labour MP Stephanie Peacock on Monday (March 25) after she submitted a written question to the government on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"Closing loophole allowing agency workers to be underpaid delayed for two years","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17687"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25403,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17687\/revisions\/25403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}