Member

I will speak briefly to Amendments 31 and 32 but firmly to my amendment to Schedule 1. This amendment seeks to remove the Secretary of State’s power to make regulations transferring the duty to offer a guaranteed-hours contract from the hirer to another party involved in the supply of agency workers. This power is both unnecessary and, I argue, undesirable. It risks creating confusion and uncertainty about where legal responsibility properly lies. In any employment or engagement relationship, it is vital that workers, whether employees, agency workers or freelancers, have clarity about who is responsible for their rights and protections. The Bill as currently drafted would allow the Secretary of State, through secondary legislation, to move the duty away from the hirer to some other party in the supply chain—perhaps an agency, perhaps another intermediary. This raises serious practical concerns.