Labour MP's Vote To Give Agency Workers Permanent Employee Rights

MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of proposals to give agency workers the same rights as permanent employees. Labour MP Andrew Miller's Private Members Bill, which calls for equal pay and conditions for the UK's 1.4m temporary agency workers, was supported by 147 MPs and opposed by only 11 in the House last week.

Miller said the government had a moral duty to protect the welfare of agency workers and said the future success of the country's economy depended on establishing a "well-trained and well- motivated workforce."

However, the Confederation of British Industry and Tory MPs said the bill in its current form could cost British industry 250,000 jobs and put small firms out of business.

A defiant Miller said: "It is the same doom merchants recycling the same approach when this government introduced the National Minimum Wage they were wrong then and they are wrong now. How can it be right for people to work alongside each other with the same skills doing precisely the same task and yet one category of employee is worth less than another?"

Trade Union Unite has been campaigning in favour of the bill and Tony Woodley, Joint General Secretary of Unite trade union, said: "The message today sent by Labour MPs to their government could not be any clearer.

Employment minister Pat McFadden confirmed the government would not be supporting the bill in its current form but said it was crucial to have an inquiry into the issue and hoped the CBI and the trade unions would agree to sit on a commission to debate it.

Tory shadow energy minister Charles Hendry said the bill was "fundamentally flawed" and gave the incorrect impression that the vast majority of law abiding agencies were exploiting their workers, when many chose the flexible option to gain experience and get on the career ladder.

The opposition warned that implementing the bill could cost the success of the London 2012 Olympics."It is absolutely ridiculous to think that every worker on the 2012 Olympics could be given a permanent employment contract. If that was the case there is a real danger the work would not be delivered on time.

The bill now goes on to its committee stage.