Temporary and Agency Workers (Equal Treatment) Bill

I have given way to the hon. Gentleman a couple of times, so I shall proceed. As I have said, the Bill before us is prompted by a genuine concern about protecting agency workers who might be subject to abuse or mistreatment. The backdrop is the draft EU directive on agency workers, which has been discussed in the EU for some years. Much has been said about the Government's commitments and what we said before the last election, so I shall be clear with both sides of the House about what we said:"““We recognise there are abuses of the system, for example 'permatemps' and agency workers who can find themselves in and out of completely casual work, not knowing from one morning to the next whether they will be earning anything.""There are also questions about the status of some 'agencies' who work on the margins and exploit the vulnerable.""Although many of these abuses would not be tackled by the current draft Agency Workers Directive, we support the principle of the Agency Workers Directive and will engage with the Commission with a view to reaching an early agreement on the proposed Directive.””" We did not say that we would sign any draft of the directive, regardless of its content, or reach an agreement that we did not believe would be in the interests of the UK labour market. Indeed, together with a number of other member states, we were unable to support the draft that was placed before the Employment Council in December.