John Hutton’s Speech Reveals A Minister Who Has Lost Touch With Reality

Construction union UCATT have reacted with anger and dismay to a speech by John Hutton where he apparently ruled out further employment rights legislation as it could compromise “labour market flexibility” and that the Government should only take responsibility for “minimum standards” in the workplace.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: “John Hutton’s speech is the work of someone who has completely lost touch with reality. His words are highly offensive to millions of workers who are struggling to support themselves and their families. It is exactly this kind of subservience to business, which is causing Labour to haemorrhage grassroots support.”

In construction, the most casualised industry in Britain, in excess of 500,000 workers face exploitation every day. Over 400,000 workers are bogusly self-employed under the Construction Industry Tax Scheme. The workers can be fired at a moments notice, do not receive standard benefits such as holiday pay and sick pay and are at greater danger of being killed or injured at work.

Construction companies who use falsely self-employed workers are given a tax subsidy by the Government, they do not have to pay employers national insurance contributions, which is worth in excess of £2,500 per worker, per annum. These companies also fail to train apprentices, creating severe skills shortages and will be able to avoid paying contributions towards the proposed statutory state second pension, as the workers are officially self-employed.

UCATT have also been campaigning to have the Gangmasters Licensing Act extended to the construction industry. The vast majority of gangmasters/employment agencies, who have had their licences removed for abusing their workers in the agriculture or food processing sectors, also operate in construction. While these gangmasters are now barred from exploiting their workers in the protected sectors, they are entirely free to continue to exploit workers who are employed in construction.

UCATT have provided extensive evidence of the level of exploitation being undertaken by gangmasters in construction to the Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. These abuses include workers being paid below the minimum wage on public sector contracts, being paid far less for doing the same work as other workers on the same site, excessive and compulsory charges for substandard accommodation and travel and the confiscation of passports and travel documents. UCATT officials have also found that many migrant workers are forced to work in a climate of fear backed up by the threat of violence and other retributions.

Despite this evidence BERR led by John Hutton have continually blocked calls for the Gangmasters Act to be extended to the construction industry.

Alan Ritchie, added: “Ministers such as John Hutton are addicted to the mantra of ‘labour market flexibility’. For ordinary workers that translates as being forced to work in a series of unstable jobs for low wages. Companies take a short term attitude and so there are is no training and no apprenticeships for young workers. When workers come to retire they are forced into a life of poverty because they do not have adequate pensions. This is what ‘labour market flexibility’ means in the real world.”

Britain has the weakest employment legislation in Europe. Although the recent announcement that agency workers will soon get employment rights after three months is a step forward, this still falls far below the rights enjoyed by temporary workers in most other European countries.

Alan Ritchie, further added: “Good employers who already treat their workers fairly have nothing to fear from fresh employment laws, in fact they should welcome it as it means that they will not be undercut by rogue employers. By saying that there will not be any further legislation, the Government is only giving succour to rogue employers.”

For Further information contact Barckley Sumner on 0780 2329235

Notes for Editors: Bogus self-employment occurs when workers have all the employment characterisitcs of normal employees but are denied basic employment rights as they are classified as self-employed.

A recent report for UCATT The Evasion Economy discovered that bogus self-employment is costing the Treasury £1.7 billion at least per annum.