Anger Over Agency Workers Delay

Once again the Government has caved into employer pressure and has announced that there will be a delay to the full implementation of legislation to ensure equal treatment for agency workers.

Tony Woodley said: "This is a scandal. For too long, agency status has been used to undercut wages and casualise workplaces.  There is not a workplace in the land that has escaped the rot of temporary work and two-tier wages.  This divides not just workplaces, but towns and communities and it must end.

"Delaying the implementation of the equal treatment law until 2011 prolongs the mistreatment of nearly a million workers around the country.  This government said it would act to end insecurity at work and we expect it to make good on that commitment, not next year, nor the year after, but today.

"Working people were promised that they would be protected now, and we will not accept any moves to dilute, delay or kick this into the long grass."

At the Labour Party Conference Unite AGS Tony Burke called for the Directive to implemented immediately and told the Government to stop pussyfooting around and stop creating loopholes