Unions vow to fight on

(07/12/07) UNISON and other trade unions are angry at the government's part in blocking EU legislation to protect vulnerable agency workers.Employment ministers from across Europe failed to thrash out a deal to implement the Agency Workers Directive when they met this week.The deal, which has been stalled for the past five years, would give agency workers the same employment rights as permanent staff.The issue is a key one for UNISON, which has been pressing the government through the TUC to break the European deadlock and agree a new deal, or to honour its Warwick commitments to introduce UK legislation.Addressing a packed fringe meeting at TUC Congress earlier this year, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: "It is a disgrace that in the fourth richest economy in the world, 10 years into a Labour government, vulnerable workers can be exploited and abused they way they are."Mr Prentis is also president of the TUC, which said the lack of progress on the Agency Working Directive was disappointing."There is real anger among unions today that the UK government played the pivotal role in blocking progress on this modest measure to improve workplace justice," said the TUC's Brendan Barber.The directive would have helped slow the growth of a two-tier workforce, and made it more difficult for employers to undercut wages and conditions, he said.However, he pledged, "unions will not give up the campaign to deliver justice for agency workers."