§ 7. Ms Janet AndersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will make a statement on the proportion of employees currently in temporary employment. [9421]
§ The Minister of State, Department for Education and Employment (Mr. Eric Forth)Latest figures from the labour force survey indicate that about 7.5 per cent. of employees are in some form of temporary employment.
§ Ms AndersonIs the Minister aware that, according to the latest labour force survey, the number of people who are in temporary jobs because they said that they could not find permanent jobs has increased by 140 per cent. over the past five years? Can the Minister explain that increase?
§ Mr. ForthThe number in temporary employment fluctuates, depending on economic circumstances and the development of the labour market. The hon. Lady seems to have missed the point that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State made earlier. If one regards temporary work as being undesirable—I in no way agree with that view; temporary work has its place in the economy—Britain has a much lower number, and proportion, of workers in temporary employment than nearly all of our major continental partners, especially those of a socialist bent who are imposing social chapter conditions and statutory minimum wages on their employees. The more restrictions one seeks to place on the labour market, the more likely there is to be a higher number of temporary workers. I hope that the hon. Lady will convey that fact to her Front-Bench colleagues.
§ Mr. MarlowDoes my hon. Friend include in his statistics of those in temporary employment the hon. Member for Peckham (Ms Harman)—in view of the remark of the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) that, if she has not been fired between now and later in the year, she will be voted out of the shadow Cabinet? If she loses her job, does my hon. Friend recommend that she become a teacher in a grammar school or that she go down t'pit, as suggested by the hon. Member for Bolsover?
§ Mr. ForthPerhaps I should arrange for a form from the next labour force survey to be sent to the hon. Lady so that we can be sure that her status is clear.
§ Mr. MeacherDoes the Minister think it right and fair that, generally, temporary workers do not get sick pay or premium payments for working overtime or shifts, are excluded from occupational pensions and are paid less than full-time staff for doing the same work? I have with 341 me examples such as a double-glazing factory worker from north Wales on £1.75 an hour, a trainee hairdresser in Oldham on £40 a week who has to pay £5 a week in bus fares and lunch money and an advertisement from a jobcentre in Chorley for a landscape gardener for just £1 an hour. Is it not disgusting that Tory economics favour six-figure, fat cat executive share options on the back of the temporary worker sweatshop economy?
§ Mr. ForthI recommend to the hon. Gentleman that he listens to our replies before he reads out his prepared soundbites. If, as he seems to be, he is saying that temporary employment is undesirable and disastrous, he should examine his party's policy more closely and explain to the electorate and the work force why the policies that he seeks to impose would almost inevitably greatly increase the number of temporary employees to the sort of figure that is found in socialist Spain. When he has an explanation for that, he should come back to the House and give it.