HC Deb 17 July 1978 vol 954 cc34-5W
Mr. Prescott

asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether his Department has received any complaints from British workers in Community countries about the non-receipt of earnings for work done in those countries negotiated by contractors in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Harold Walker

My Department has received very few complaints of this kind in respect of employment in Community countries with United Kingdom-based work contractors or employment businesses—staff contractors—but rather more have been received concerning non-receipt of earnings from staff contractors or other employers in the construction industry in Community countries for whom workers have been recruited by agents or representatives in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Prescott

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will seek to introduce a system of licensing of contract agents in the United Kingdom who hire British employees and subcontract them to employers in other Community countries.

Mr. Harold Walker

The Employment Agencies Act 1973, which came into operation on 1st July 1976, already provides, inter alia, for the licensing and regulation of employment businesses carried on from premises in Great Britain who employ workers and supply them to act for and under the control of third parties in the United Kingdom or abroad.

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