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Employment Bill [Lords]

Regulation 7 already contains provisions prohibiting employment businesses from supplying temporary workers to replace workers who are taking part in a strike or other form of industrial action. The same regulation prevents employment businesses from supplying temporary workers to do the work of other workers who have been transferred by the business to do the work normally done by individuals taking action. New clause 3 seeks to add to that provision by placing similar prohibitions on businesses that seek to hire agency workers and by requiring those businesses to inform the employment business of any strike or other industrial action when seeking to hire workers wholly or partly as a result of that industrial action. Representations have been made to me and to the Department about compliance with that provision. Although the employment business is liable to be prosecuted for any unlawful supply of agency workers, the allegation is made that non-compliance could be at the behest of the business hiring the agency workers. In addition, there might be circumstances where the agency is not aware whether the workers it supplies are working in an area that is affected by industrial action. That is the representation that is sometimes made. I know that we have been given examples, but we have received few reports that the existing provisions have not proved effective. There have been a number of investigations by the employment agency standards inspectorate into complaints about breaches of the provision and, in the vast majority of cases, the inspectors have not found evidence of non-compliance. Indeed, there is evidence that agencies take their responsibilities under the provision very seriously, frequently warning their client companies that they cannot supply workers to replace those taking strike action. The new clause would also require businesses to inform the employment business of such action when seeking to hire workers, but unions often inform the employment businesses that industrial action is taking place in order to ensure that the employment business cannot claim to have no knowledge of it. Finally, I point out to my hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington that other provisions in the Bill strengthen the enforcement of the conduct regulations. It is important to take account of them when judging the debate. Clause 15 enables the more serious breaches of employment agency legislation to be prosecuted in the Crown court, where the maximum penalty would be an unlimited fine. Therefore, the consequences for employment businesses of breaching the conduct regulations could be a lot more serious in future.