The MP for South Swindon is challenging the government to extend their plans for agency workers to address redundancy rights.

Anne is raising the case of Sally Avis, who worked at Catalent in Swindon, for over 2 years for an employment agency called Randstad, before being dismissed without redundancy pay.

The Government made a declaration with employers in May that after 12 weeks in work, temporary and agency workers will qualify for the same pro-rata pay and conditions as full-time workers.

Anne wants this to extend to redundancy pay – at the moment just because someone is treated as an “employee” of the business for the purposes of tax and national insurance, it does not necessarily mean that they will be classified as an “employee” of that business for the purposes of employment law. A number of the rights conferred by the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA) only apply to “employees”. One of the most important is the right to redundancy payments.

Anne said:

“After giving 2 years of her life to her employer she was dumped without recompense. I know neither agencies nor the employers would want this to continue, because they want what I want: A thriving and fair Swindon.”

“I want the Government to look at equal treatment in terms of employment status and this is the right time because they are looking at equal treatment in terms of pay and conditions.”

To view complete text of the debate:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2008-06-24a.63.0