Temporary and Agency Workers (Equal Treatment) Bill

My hon. Friend is right. Without agency workers, the games could probably not be delivered on time. The Government tell us how important the Olympic games are to Britain, and I support the games coming to Britain, but it is essential that we make the use of temporary workers attractive. The survey reveals a spread of opinion on the impact of the agency workers directive if it were implemented in the UK. Employers were asked about the overall impact of the directive, which, as we all know, is the forerunner of the Bill. Only 17 per cent. thought that the impact would be positive, whereas 37 per cent. said that they knew already that it would have a negative impact on their business. Of the employers who took a negative view, 61 per cent. expected upward pressure on pay and benefits packages. That might be what the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston aims to achieve through his Bill, but this country's police officers, teachers and nurses are probably fed up to the back teeth of hearing the Government stress the importance of pay restraint to avoid rampant inflation, so it seems bizarre that when Government Members are telling police officers, teachers and nurses that they cannot have the pay rises to which they are entitled in one go because that would create inflation, and 61 per cent. of those who think the directive will cause problems say that one of those problems will be upward pressure on pay and benefits packages, they are so willing to support the Bill. Will the Minister calculate the likely impact on inflation if the Bill is enacted and people's pay is increased by more than the businesses employing them can afford? In that survey, 29 per cent. of respondents said that they expected it to be less likely that agency temps would be hired as permanent employees. The Bill's promoter is trying to get agency workers the same employment rights as permanent employees. Now, when such workers become permanent employees, they get those benefits, but 29 per cent. of employers are saying that the Bill would make it less likely that agency temps would ever become permanent employees. He would therefore deprive those workers of the benefits that he is trying to give them. Almost half—47 per cent.—the employers responding to the survey said that the directive would make hiring agency temps more bureaucratic. As we know, businesses already face far too much bureaucracy. For companies such as Asda, which I used to work for, bureaucracy, while annoying, is not disastrous, because they can afford to employ people to go through and ensure compliance with all the directives and bureaucracy—it is meat and drink to them. Employing such people takes up only a small proportion of a big business's costs. However, for the many small employers that are the engine room of our economy—for small shop keepers and other small businesses in our constituencies—expecting them to abide by more bureaucracy, legislation and rules is simply unrealistic. They spend long enough hours managing their own business and keeping it going. Many small business men work very long hours for little reward to keep people in employment, and many keep workers that they really cannot afford to keep because they are loyal to their employees. Imposing further costs and burdens on them would be a terrible crime and certainly lead to lots of small businesses closing in our constituencies. Employers think that the agency workers directive will have an impact on their recruitment strategy. It is important that we look at the various sectors. Of employers in manufacturing and production, 47 per cent. say that the directive would have a negative impact on their recruitment strategy—they would recruit fewer people as a result. We often talk about how we need to support manufacturing and how nice it would be to grow our manufacturing base. This Bill would do more than anything to undermine our manufacturing businesses and base. The survey shows that 34 per cent. of private sector service companies said that they would recruit fewer people; 42 per cent. of public service companies said the same; and it was 32 per cent. in the voluntary sector. Clearly, that would have a devastating effect on employment and recruitment. Employers believe that the Bill would have a slightly different effect in different areas of the country. It is no surprise that the biggest impact would be in London and the south-east. In London, 44 per cent. of employers said that the Bill would have a negative impact on their recruitment strategy. In my area of Yorkshire and the Humber, 39 per cent. said that it would have a negative effect on recruitment strategy and I certainly do not want to support a Bill when 39 per cent. of the organisations surveyed in my own area, which employ my constituents, say that they would employ fewer people as a result. Labour Members should think long and hard about the Bill's impact on employment among their constituents in their constituencies. How would they explain that their constituents were out of work because of a piece of legislation that Labour MPs had themselves passed?