GMB Calls On Lord Mandelson To Investigate Employment Agencies Breaking Law By Supplying Temporary Workers To Do Work Of Royal Mail Strikers

Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary, has written to Lord Mandelson asking that he and his department instruct the relevant agency to investigate cases of Employment Agencies breaking the law in the Royal Mail dispute and to properly enforce the law for which he and his department are responsible. See text of letter in notes below. GMB last month set up a hotline 0208 971 4217 for members of the public to report breaches of the law by employment agencies.

In the letter GMB brings to Lord Mandelson attention some specific cases involving Manpower in the Royal Mail dispute that GMB considers he should ask the agency to investigate. GMB refers to evidence that Manpower’s office in High Street Slough and other local offices of that company supplied hundreds of agency workers to a Royal Mail location in Langley Slough SL3 8AQ. GMB bring to his attention the case on the front page of the Guardian of 29^th October regarding Manpower recruiting staff for Royal Mail at the Western Approach distribution Centre in Bristol. In both cases these workers supplied by Manpower seem to be doing the jobs of workers on strike.

GMB letter also refers to the comprehensive reports in both the London Evening Standard and the Daily Mail regarding the recruitment and deployment of agency staff doing the work of Royal strikers in locations in Dartford Kent and Bristol.

In the letter Paul Kenny writes “There is an agency in the department you run that has a duty to investigate breaches and it has a very poor track record in enforcing the law.

I am calling on you and your department to instruct the agency to investigate these and other cases and to properly enforce the law for which you and your department are responsible. GMB reserves the right, if you and your department fail to carry out your lawful responsibilities or act in a prejudicial way, to seek enforcement proceedings against your department and the Government.”

End

Contact: GMB Press Office: Steve Pryle 07921 289880 or Rose Conroy 07974 251 823.

Notes to Editors

This is the text of a letter from Paul Kenny to Lord Mandelson.

2^nd November 2009

Dear Lord Mandelson,

I refer to your letter of 23 October regarding Royal Mail using agency staff during the post dispute. You seem to accept assurances from Royal Mail that what they are asking employment agencies to do is lawful.

We need to be clear on what the law says.

The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003 which came into force in April 2004. Part ll General Obligations, regulation 7, ‘restriction on providing work-seekers in industrial disputes’ states:

….an employment business may not supply a temporary worker to a hirer to replace an individual taking part in an official strike or any other official industrial dispute. In addition, an employment business must not introduce or supply a work-seeker to do the work of someone who has been transferred by the hirer to perform the duties of the person on strike or taking industrial action. An employment business will have a legal defense to having acted in breach of this regulation if it does not know, or has no reasonable grounds for knowing, that official strike action is in progress.

Regulation 7(2) provides that this regulation applies to official strike Action.

If an agency or business has not complied with the regulations: it can be sued for damages by anyone who suffers loss or injury as a result of that failure; the DTI can initiate a criminal prosecution against it (the maximum penalty is a fine of up to £5,000 per offence); and a ten year ban. any contractual term that contravenes the Regulations is unenforceable (though the remainder of the contract may still be enforceable).

This is in addition to the DTI's power to apply to an employment tribunal to have someone declared unsuitable to carry on, or be concerned with, an employment agency or business.

There is an agency in the department you run that has a duty to investigate breaches and it has a very poor track record in enforcing the law.

I would like to bring to your attention some specific cases involving Manpower that you should ask the agency to investigate in the Royal Mail dispute. First GMB has evidence that Manpower Office in High Street Slough and other local offices of that company supplied hundreds of agency workers to a Royal Mail location in Langley Slough SL3 8AQ. Second is the case on the front page of Guardian of 29^th October regarding Manpower recruiting lots of staff for Royal Mail at the Western Approach distribution Centre in Bristol. In both cases these workers supplied by Manpower seem to be doing the jobs of workers on strike.

In addition there were also comprehensive reports in both the London Evening Standard and the Daily Mail regarding the recruitment and deployment of agency staff doing the work of Royal strikers in locations in Dartford Kent and Bristol.

I am calling on you and your department to instruct the agency to investigate these and other cases and to properly enforce the law for which you and your department are responsible. GMB reserves the right, if you and your department fail to carry out your lawful responsibilities or act in a prejudicial way, to seek enforcement proceedings against your department and the Government.

Yours sincerely

PAUL KENNY

General Secretary