Rights for temporary/casual workers

[mysteryman]

Hi,

On Friday 2 March, Paul Farrelly MP will be presenting a Private Members Bill in the House Commons to call for improved rights for temporary and casual staff, including better rights relating to pay, sickness pay, holidays, overtime pay and general issues of unscrupulous employers.

The Bill can only be passed if 100 MPs vote in favour of it. Could everyone who reads this message, who believes in improving the rights of temporary and casual staff, please contact your MP and ask them to be present at the vote on Friday 2 March and to vote in favour of this important Bill?

If you do not know who your MP is, you can find this information out by visiting http://www.theyworkforyou.com where you can tyope in your postcode and obtain the information including their email address. Most MPs have an email address. The usual format is surname.first initial@parliament.uk. For example Hilary Benn's email address would be bennh@parliament.uk

Alternatively you can write to them at the House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

Or email me and I'll send you information about who your MP is and how to contact them. My email address is sclomax2004@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks. I know many people will think that contacting an MP will not make any diference but the best way to achieve our aim of getting better rights is to go through the legislative process and this is our best opportunity to do that. So please contact your MP today.

Thank you.

[BAJR Host]

Support this BAJRites ... If you only make one email this year... support it. It took me 5 minutes to do ... Are you commited to helping improve conditions.. ..... you are? ... then prove it!

"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[trowelfodder]

Will do. It might also be worth office bods printing out this page if their venturing out into the field any time soon and pinning up in tea huts incase theres no inteternt access

[trowelfodder]

Im going to paste in the reply i got from my MP to demonstrate quite how important it is that you lot get involved with this exercise as it illustates the problems faced by those tryng to get the bill through

"Thank you for your message, Catherine.

I assume this is a Private Members' Bill and if that is the case the
number of members present is only relevant if the Bill is being
opposed.
In that case, that number of MPs are needed to force a "closure vote"
so
the Bill can proceed to the next stage of consideration.

I am afraid I know nothing about this particular Bill - there are a lot
of Private Members' Bills and you are the first person to contact me
about this particular one - but I will now make some inquiries and get
back to you.

Thank you for getting in touch.

All the best

Alun Michael"

How many other mps know nothing about this bill? - come on people take responcability for enacting change yourselves. It takes five mins and if you use the link on bajr you can email directly rather than having to go from your account.

And lets have some copies of thier replies on here to see how we're doing

[mysteryman]

I have a friend who is an MP who is getting involved. I've written to the letters page for all the main national newspapers to ask people to write to their MPs. It is a Private Members Bill but 100 MPs are needed, or at least that is what is being said by the Trade Unions. Obviously the more MPs who go, even if 100 are not needed, the better chance we have of getting the rights we ought to be entitled to.

[kevin wooldridge]

quote:Originally posted by mysterymanObviously the more MPs who go, even if 100 are not needed, the better chance we have of getting the rights we ought to be entitled to.

Nearly all Private Members Bills require allocation of time by the government whips, in effect the 'nod' from the powers that be, to get onto the statute book. A big showing of parliamentary support i.e 100 plus MPs, at this early stage helps to 'sway' the government towards 'supporting' the future progress of the Bill.

[1man1desk]

Well, I have written to my (Labour) MP and got a reply, although I can't say it filled me with conviction about his commitment to the cause:

quote:I was discussing the Bill only yesterday with its sponsor, my Labour
colleague Paul Farelly (whose office is in the same building as mine)
and I asked him to keep me updated on how the Bill is progressing.
While the Bill is one that I certainly support, it is not yet clear that
it will actually proceed to a Second Reading vote on 2nd March.

You will appreciate that it is always difficult to commit to staying at
Westminster on Fridays, since I normally return home to the constituency
late on Thursday night to enable me to fulfil constituency appointments
with constituents and meetings with organisations to pursue local issues
on their behalf. As a result, Fridays are booked up well in advance,
and I already have a number of constituency commitments that day that I
would be loathe to cancel.

1man1desk

to let, fully furnished

[BAJR Host]

Yipes.....

At least you got a reply..... still waiting from mine!

"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[mysteryman]

He is right. Friday is a difficult day becaiuse traditionally it is one where the MP returns to his or her constituencies to do constituency based work. Really they spend so little time in the constituencies that if they were stuck in Westminster on Fridays then they would get little time to make themselves available to those who elected them.

But that's why I posted this - so that we can get as many as possible with a fairly reasonable amount of notice. Ultimately their job is to vote on the issues that matter on behalf of their constituencts and they can only do that by sacrificing a day with their families and in their homes. And this is a pretty huge issue that will benefit people in every town and city across the country. We have to press our MPs. This is in the interests of this country and a large number of peopel within it. I've written letters for the letters page of all the national newspapers in the hope of getting more people to write to their MPs but as of yet none have been printed.

In the meantime I'm taking the university that i work for (or as far as I'm concerned I work for them) to a tribunal after they have told me that I am not employed by them because I only have a "casual engagement" with unit that is part of the university and so effectively have no rights despite the fact I'm on their payroll, which is illegal my solicitor has told me. I did write to the University and followed the correct procedure so I've been advised to go ahead with the tribunal.

[kevin wooldridge]

Just got home to find a letter from my MP on the doormat in reply to my e-mail of earlier in the week.

Like 1man 1desk's MP he has other committments for that day, but says 'Although I am unable to attend the debate.....I do support this Bill and I have therefore made representations on your behalf to the Minister with responsibility for this issue'

Which I guess at least helps to keep the pot boiling on this issue ....