§ 30. Mr. Clemitsonasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will ensure that regulations made under the Employment Agencies Act 1973 have full regard to the need to eliminate the abuses of self-employment.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerI am giving careful consideration to the manner and extent to which the regulations can be brought to bear on this matter.
Following are the details of the proposed regulations:
The problems to which my hon. Friend refers mainly arise in relation to the activities of employment businesses rather than employment agencies and our proposals for regulations include, inter alia, the following:
- (a) The business must give a borrowing employer a written statement of its terms of business stating also whether the worker supplied is under a contract of service to the employment business or is engaged on a self-employed basis.
- (b) Before supplying a worker to a borrowing employer, a business must inform the worker in writing whether he is employed by the business on a contract of service or a self-employed basis and of his terms of work with the borrowing employer, including his rate of pay and any expenses.
- (c) When an employment business enters into contracts with workers in a particular occupation only on a self-employed basis, this fact must be stated in any advertisement issued by the business with the aim of recruiting workers in that occupation.
§ 35. Sir J. Edenasked the Secretary of State for Employment what are the responsibilities of his Department with regard to the well-being of the self-employed in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. BoothThe employment and training services provided by the Manpower Services Commission and its agencies are available to the self-employed, as is the protection provided through the Health and Safety Commission. These commissions are responsible to the Secretary of State for Employment but are no longer part of the Department of Employment.