A full page advert appears in today’s Daily Mirror and Guardian publicising the trade union case for agency workers rights.  “Stop the undercutting, stop the abuse” reads the article, urging the public to email their MP to support the private members bill.   The bill is being heard tomorrow, Friday February 22nd.   The bill, proposed by Andrew Miller, Labour MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, would be a vital first step towards ending the insecurity and mistreatment of agency workers.   As the advert reads “agency workers in the UK need the government to support the bill and end the casualisation and abuse of working people”.

CWU has been a key supporter of this campaign and is joined in the advert by Community, GMB, UCATT, Unison, Unite and USDAW.

General Secretary Billy Hayes called on the government to support the bill saying ““This is a real minimum wage moment. At this shaky time for government, introducing this legislation would improve the lives of 1.4 million working people, along with their friends and families. That’s 1.4 million voters who would benefit if Labour brought this in.”

If you haven’t yet lobbied your MP, please email him/her today asking for support for tomorrows’ private members bill.

A full reproduction of the advert is attached.  

Full details of the Unions Justice for Agency workers campaign can be found here.

Post Office closures

Yesterday, Wednesday 20th February, most national newspapers carried articles covering the row on Post Office closures.  This included the Guardian, Telegraph, Sun, Daily Mail and Financial Times.  The London Evening Standard on Tuesday 19th announced “one in five post offices across the capital to be shut down” and listed the 169 branches facing closure.