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From The Socialist newspaper, 1 February 2012
Tough conditions for agency workers
I am 23 and have been unemployed for four months. Prior to this, I was working in an unskilled job as a temporary worker for a higher education institution.
Recruitment agencies employing temporary workers have increasingly become a fact of life. It is estimated that only around 5% of current vacancies are for full-time permanent positions.
Agencies are used to undercut the terms, conditions and wages of permanent staff. It can provoke a 'divide and rule' tension among workers, as temps start to resent the permanent staff, who are usually better paid and may be in more responsible positions.
Some unions seem reluctant to represent agency workers. When I talked to colleagues about being involved in a union, most did not believe that the union could do anything, and some did not even think they were allowed to join.
Agencies are often appallingly run. For people who chose to work bank holidays, they would receive only the usual rate. At my workplace, a fourth shift was added, for a derisory extra 50p an hour, despite the fact that those working it would be doing, in some cases, a 60-hour week. I could barely manage a 45-hour week because I had a one and a half hour commute, as I could find no jobs in my local area!
Nonetheless it was not uncommon for the agency to ring me up and ask me to come in for a shift which was due to start in half an hour. Yet people who could not attend a shift could face dismissal if they did not inform them the previous day!
Wages of £6 or £7 an hour are barely enough to get by on, especially when shifts are so erratic, making it difficult to plan the week. Many of my colleagues had families which made an already impossible situation even worse.
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In The Socialist 1 February 2012:
Socialist Party news and analysis
Bankers bonus scandal - Fight this profit-mad system
Trade unionists and socialists prepare for May elections
What is the point of Labour MPs?
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Don't let the racist EDL divide us
Disabled protesters demand scrapping of 'welfare' bill
Haringey takes action against academies
Coventry: Re-elect Dave Nellist
Socialist Party youth and students
NUS: name the day for student walkout
Save Derbyshire youth services!
Only one in six 'vacancies' real
Tough conditions for agency workers
South East Wales youth plan new campaigns
International socialist news and analysis
EU summit - no capitalist solutions to the spiralling eurozone crisis
Interview: the Tunisian revolution one year on
Socialist Party workplace news
Pensions battle: Unions must campaign for coordinated strike action in March
London Docklands transport workers win Olympics deal
Remploy workers fight privatisation
Jet tanker drivers continue strike action
The Socialist - readers' comments
Debate: Should socialists support the HS2 rail line?
Are the Greens a real alternative?
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