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TUC attacks employment agencies
Page 28
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by Bill Frost
THE TUC conference at Brighton on Monday overwhelmingly passed a motion to oppose private employment agencies which hired temporary workers "and kept down the pay and conditions of full-time staff".
It is claimed at Brighton by a number of delegates that temporary labour was neither interested in the trade union movement nor in conditions of employment because they received a higher than normal rate for the job as temporary employees. One delegate declared that the engagement of temporary labour at these higher rates led to dis satisfaction among permanent staff.
Although not specifically mentioned at Brighton, the transport industry is as dependent on temporary labour as any other, it seems. in an attempt to weigh the worth of the TUC's allegation that agencies were engaged in a "slave trade", and that temporary staff work against good industrial relations, 1 approached three large London agencies.
A spokqsman for Manpower Ltd said that there was no evidence that the hgv drivers they had on their books were either slaves or a threat to industrial harmony. Manpower rates for the jobs vary with every situation, but! was told that the hourly rate for a Class 1 driver is this week between 90p and £1. The agency charges the operator £1.80p a hour for the driver services, which is approximately 100 per cent gross profit.
The Brook St Bureau was similarly baffled by the TUC's criticism of its function. A spokesman for "the agency that operate by bothering" said that a Class 1 driver could expect to earn between £1 and £1.30p if it placed him in a job. In this case, the operator is charged £2 an hour.
The Alfred Marks Agency, who were specifically mentioned at the TUC conference, pays Class I drivers 90p an hour and charges the employer up to £1.80p an hour.
Mr Leslie Huckfield, MP for Nuneaton, asked the Secretary of State for Employment in the Heath administration if he would introduce legislation to prohibit the setting up of private agencies for lorry drivers. The Under-Secretary at that time, Mr Dudley Smith, said that while this would not be done, he welcomed a Private Member's Bill requiring all employment agencies to be licensed.
When Commercial Motor looked at the driver agency question last year operators claimed that agency employment was crippling them. (CM April 6, 1973). The RHA and the FTA have also voiced their disapproval.
According to Mr Bernard Dix, the research officer of the National Union of Public Employees, the Government does not need to introduce a new Bill in order to abolish employment agencies, which would be a lengthy procedtire. Nor would a Private Member's Bill be required. Mr Dix told the TUC that the Secretary of State could abolish the system with an Order in Council.
Foot note: Where an agenc), charges £2 per hour, this amounts to £80 per week for a 40-hour week. The current rate for a 40-hour week for a maximum capacity artic is £35.40, but, in addition, the employer has to make allowances for holidays, sickness, National Health insurance and Graduated Pension.